Trump boasts his trading cards have “made history” amid a spate of backlash

Former President Donald Trump’s collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to him, “made history” after selling out in “hours” despite being ruthlessly mocked for its release.

The exclusive digital trading cards were unveiled by Trump on Thursday, each with a starting price of $99. However, according to NFT marketplace OpenSea, each card had doubled in value on the secondary market after selling out in a day.

On Friday, Trump bragged to his supporters on his Truth Social account about the record sale time and thanked those who bought one.

“WE MADE HISTORY!” wrote the former president. “My Trump digital trading cards sold out in a matter of hours. Congratulations to the collectors. Thank you.”

Trump first teased that he would be making a “big announcement” earlier in the week, but left several of his MAGA supporters disappointed with the news on Thursday. Several users on Twitter had speculated that the announcement, which came exactly a month after Trump’s presidential bid was announced, would be related to his selection as running mate for 2024 or news of one of his many big lawsuits.

Some of the ex-president’s longtime supporters, including his former chief White House strategist Steven Bannon, instead appeared to be reaching a breaking point on the NFTs, as Bannon told his podcast listeners Thursday, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Also Daniel Bostic, one of the leading organizers of the “Stop the Steal” movement tweeted on Thursday, if the NFTs were “the #MAJORANNOUNCEMENT, it’s embarrassing and a slap in the face to Trump’s base.”

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro added on his talk show Friday that Trump’s disappointing announcement “almost completely wrecks his presidential campaign before it even gets underway.”

However, even amid widespread backlash, around 14,000 people bought at least one or more of the online tokens within a 12-hour window, according to OpenSea data. The entire collection of 45,000 NFTs was worth around $570,000 as of Friday morning.

Conservative commentator Larry Elder said meanwhile The Fox11 talk show This problem is Friday night that the former president’s “mission” for his trading cards “was for us to talk about Trump.”

“Mission accomplished,” he added. “He’s a very accomplished businessman and that’s exactly what he’s done.”

Women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who also joined This problem is added on Friday that Trump “monetized” his former status in the White House “among a very small and shrinking base of his supporters.”

“He’s trying to make as much money as possible,” Allred said. “By the way, everything goes to him personally. It doesn’t go to his election campaign.”

According to the Donald Trump Digital Trading Card website, the NFTs “were not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign.”

news week has reached out to Trump’s team for comment.