Trump hawking NFT digital trading cards is a brand tragedy

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Sometimes you have to sit back and appreciate former President Donald Trump’s steadfast resistance to change. This is a man who has not let go of repeated bankruptcies, not two divorces, even if the actual presidency has changed who he is as a person. Trump’s commitment to his core self was on display again Wednesday when he teased a big announcement on Truth Social, the right-wing social media app he owns.

His teasing tagline “America needs a superhero” certainly had the folks at Truth Social in a frenzy. My favorite theory to emerge: a possible challenge to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to be the new speaker of the House. (Did I think that would happen? No. Am I excited about the opportunity to write about how few are the requirements to be speaker? Yes.) But Thursday morning’s revelation was much, much more in line with the Trump we’ve come to know. in 2015, before his improbable campaign changed American politics.

This is a man who has not let go of repeated bankruptcies, not two divorces, even if the actual presidency has changed who he is as a person.

Instead of anything remotely government-involved, we got the premiere of the official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection. That’s right, Trump decided now was the perfect time to slap his name and image on a set of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Trump boasts that digital art is like a baseball card, but hopefully more exciting, which I’m pretty sure is word for word how the idea was explained to him.

But don’t take it from me. Let the master salesman himself give you his two-minute pitch for why you should spend $99 each on his digital photos as per the Village People paper and then some:

For some observers, like my MSNBC colleague Steve Benen, it’s a puzzling choice for someone who is theoretically running for president. Yes, it’s true his 2024 campaign is somehow more muddled than his first run which isn’t exactly a promising sign for his supporters. But for me this latest grift is a window into an alternate universe. These NFTs, in all their humble glory, represent Trump as he would have been had he not won the White House in 2016.

While he started out as a humble real estate heir, Trump has made a fair share of money over the years from monetizing his brand in licensing deals. While the evil Trump Steaks is obviously the first (and best) example that comes to mind, I actually forgot how many things Trump has slapped his name on over the years: Trump menswear! Trump coffee pods! Trump mattresses! Trump lamp and wall sconce! And much more! There was even a short-lived Trump Ice Water. There was a reason that for a while I was sure that Trump Knives were a real thing that he sold. (They weren’t in the 2016 bit on Jimmy Kimmel Live! featuring Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling.)

There’s also his knack for slapping his name on real estate projects in which he has no actual investment, including some that will fail. And that’s why it makes perfect sense that he made this deal with NFT INT LLC, the producers of these atrocities. According to the website that peddles these climate-warming carbon emissions junk, none of the funds from their sale will go to the Trump campaign.

Then again, for Trump it’s completely on brand, if you’ll excuse the pun. So what bottom fell out of the NFT market months ago? So what if the products themselves are worse than even the most incompetent art-stealing AI could put together? What if even the people on the Trump-centric Reddit spinoff Patriots.Win couldn’t believe what they were seeing? None of that matters to Donald Trump, who once made a name for himself in vodka and cologne.

It was reported years ago that Trumps 2016 run was potentially a branding exercise that went horribly wrong. He then spent the next four years destroying his own brand of longevity and the Republican Party along with it. That’s why this latest move, in my view, is a return to normal for Trump after years of having to pretend he wants to be president.

This is the Trump we’d be dealing with if The Apprentice had been a flop or he hadn’t entered the race in 2015. We probably wouldn’t know his feelings about immigrants or his authoritarian streak or the danger he poses to democracy as a whole. Wed only know him as the guy who tells us that spending C-notes on a poorly rendered JPG file of him in a Santa costume is a great Christmas present.

Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily, where he helps formulate the day’s news for readers. He was previously at BuzzFeed News and has a degree in international relations from Michigan State University.

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