Trump hid top-secret SCI files that pertained to Iranian missiles and Chinese defense strategies (The two we know of would both be highly valuable on the “international market”), despite being given a full year of good-faith negotiations by the National Archives. Trump’s obvious breach of United States security didn’t, and still doesn’t, move the MAGAs at all.
But if you listen to the MAGAs today, they are beyond offended by the NFT cards. It isn’t the insurrection or the possible espionage that turned the strongest MAGAs away. Combining the promise of a “major announcement” that got some of their hopes up with nothing but an “NFT money grab” is having a major impact, the type of impact we haven’t seen before. In the entirety of Trump’s political presence, this stunt is having a deeper and more lasting impact than anything we’ve seen yet.
Ben Shapiro is up there with Charlie Kirk, Bannon, Ronna McDaniel, and the whole long list of others as a Trump follower and apologist. But according to Shapiro, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, thinking at first that it was a “Deep fake.” After all, he says that one can’t be an aspiring presidential candidate, say you have a major announcement, and it’s an NFT money grab, it craters his presidential campaign before it even got off the ground.
He goes on to say that it’s painful, said it twice, and that it’s utterly cringeworthy, the worst politics he’s ever seen.
One last note: Even Shapiro won’t point the finger directly at Trump. In the same way that Bannon said that every adviser around Trump needs to be filed. Ben said he thought “there was no way that Trump would acquiesce to the people around him pushing him to do something this stupid.”
Even now they are dancing lightly, blaming staff more than Trump despite the fact that it is Trump that wants to be the president, the one who makes the decisions after hearing the advice of his aides. But even more importantly, the NFT cards are so on-brand for Trump, depicted as a superhero on glorified baseball cards sounds like something only Trump could come up with and push forward through the advice of staff who are walking around saying “NO!”
And I think Shapiro (and Bannon, and…) know that:
Ben Shapiro slams Trump for his NFT grift: “Almost completely craters his presidential campaign .. it’s cringeworthy, it just is .. a money grab .. On every available front, it’s maybe the dumbest politics I’ve ever seen. It’s painful. It’s painful!” pic.twitter.com/TfSKPgRw8t
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) December 16, 2022
There is one other explanation put forth by a commentator yesterday. There is a slight chance that this was another way to launder money into Trump’s pockets. Strangely, despite the angry response by so many MAGAs, the cards did sell out in one day, and it would be hard to determine who bought them, at least from the outside. This is a real grift. This money doesn’t go to some PAC. This money goes into Trump’s pocket. You know he didn’t need to be talked into “acquiescing” to the scheme.
Shapiro might want to get used to this feeling. The pain for him and his kind is just getting started.
Now hold on a second, everything trump has done has been a money grab. He’s been on the grift for years. I find it very, very difficult to believe his loyal followers are offended over this latest silliness.
They thought they were going to receive an actual thing of actual value this time.
Who did buy all of them? $4.5 million at $99 per is a lot of fake “trading cards”.
I don’t believe Trump made $4.5 million selling those things in a few hours. I would love to see some documentation of that and you know we won’t. And you also know that if it was real that Trump would be sending documentation to the NYT, WaPo, all of them, demanding they put it on the front page.
Trump isn’t quite himself but one thing he’s always been is PR savvy. There’s book smarts and street smarts and when it comes to self-promotion and grifting Trump falls in the latter category. Now, keep in mind his supposed net worth. His Trump Org. has always been an operation that was in part Ponzi scheme, getting money coming in to cover current expenses and stay ahead of past debts. In many an “empire”, even one with tangible things like buildings or properties (i.e. golf courses) if money had to be borrowed to acquire them then there’s debt to be paid off. Trump is far from the first would-be “tycoon” to over extend himself and cash flow has been an issue for him for decades. He needed some quick cash, plain and simple. And he alerted people ahead of time, sleazy people who “owe him one” to buy these damned things, maybe just a handful (or even just one via some cutouts) to make them sell out so quickly. But it got him some quick cash that was his, and avoided any issues with campaign finance laws. Can you say money laundering?
That’s all this was. Trump needed a quick two or three million and by quick I mean right fucking now. Washing a little cash via this scheme which grossed 4.5 million would still leave him with between two and three million. His mistake as it were was hyping it the way he did. It was probably going to be an ongoing thing but the blowback seems to indicate that’s not gonna happen. He’s going to have to come up with another desperate scheme. But he will.
The one thing we know for sure is that Trump actually did it. It was not a Trump impersonator hawking those NFTs. So if “there was no way that Trump would acquiesce to the people around him pushing him to do something this stupid,” that can only mean that it was Trump’s own idea.
The IRS should ask for their share of the $4.5 million – then we’ll see a very fast denial that any were actually ‘sold’
Grifters grift. Liars lie. Traitors betray. Hypocrites expect you to follow rules they don’t. Cult members throw away self autonomy for the lobotomized comfort of being told what to believe & what to do. Stupid racists are easily riled & often kill people. That should clear up a few things.
Hey Bennie. Next time I want a lie from an half educated nazi loving pissant…I’ll look you up asshole.