Donald Trump's grifty "major announcement" yesterday was even embarrassing to a lot of the former President's supporters. Social media users speculated that he could announce Kari Lake as his running mate or that he wants to become the House Speaker, but instead, he wants his rubes to buy his new trading cards. I know nothing about NFTs, but if Lumpy is involved, something isn't right.

Via Kurt Eichenwald:

Before we start down the rabbit hole of partnerships, corporations and other entities that lead to criminals and fraudsters, I need to address one question up front: What exactly are buyers of the Trump Trading Cards purchasing? Yes, they are NFTs, but unlike others of these digital art pieces, the people foolish enough to purchase a Trump Trading Card don't actually own the things they paid for, at least not in the traditional sense. If any buyer decides to sell their Trump card in a secondary market, they don't get all the proceeds. The fine print reveals that 10% of every secondary market sales goes right back to Trump and his fellow grifters. For more details, buyers are told to click the link to terms and conditions. Buyers have to confirm they read the terms and conditions but…the terms and conditions are nowhere to be found.

Trump himself is not producing the cards, any more than he has developed any real estate projects since 2010. Instead, he has reached a licensing agreement with a company called NFT International LLC. All his licensing agreements, dating back decades (Real estate, Trump Steaks, Trump University etc.) have all had the same terms: The licensor pays Trump a bunch of cash up front, then he gets a share of the revenue produced by whatever the grifty product is. That number has ranged from 10% to 50%, and there is no reason to expect that this time it is any less - in fact, it is almost certainly more.

So, you don't really own a Digital Donnie Card because if you sell it, a percentage goes back to the former President.

And there's this: