Yesterday Comrade Trump announced he would make a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT today (he’s exactly the kind of massive asshole who’d announce he was going to make an announcement). And he did.
This…and I have to announce that I am NOT MAKING THIS UP…is Trump’s announcement:
That’s right, trading cards. Digital trading cards. Not even actual physical cards. Digital ones. For ‘only’ US$99 each. For Christmas. Trading cards of Trump depicted in various ‘heroic’ outfits. Trump as an astronaut, Trump as a Texas Ranger, Trump as a NASCAR driver, Trump as…well, I don’t know…an NFL owner? In all these images Trump looks fit and thin and naturally tan.
Like any rational person, I thought this was a joke. THIS WAS NOT A JOKE. I should say this was not an intentional joke, because it most definitely IS a joke. This bonehead is actually attempting to market himself using trading cards. Who is the target audience for this bullshit? What kind of moron would think this would make a good Christmas gift? Who is stupid and gullible enough to buy th…oh. right, FreeRepublic.
So, of course, I held my nose and jumped into the Freeperverse. And yes, sure enough, there were some True Believers who saw the obvious genius of this venture.
Love it, Never-Trumpers and Democrats will go crazy.. Ultimate Troll.
10:20:22 AM by DEPcomI think he is just messing around with the criminal deep state. They know some big bad news is coming, but have no idea about how and when it will drop. Announcing a major announcement was just Trump’s way of increasing the anxiety.
10:22:01 AM by TBallQ: How do you communicate when everything you do and say is surveilled?
A: Obscurely.
If that’s what Trump is doing…
Works for me.
10:42:54 AM by mewzilla
But there were many more…and I mean many more…Freepers who weren’t quite sold by this scheme.
This is just so f…..g dumb. Really? This is his big announcement?
You know what. I’m done. Walking away.
10:12:28 AM by Sirius LeeIs this supposed to be a joke? The country is falling apart, desperate for some good news, and the major announcement is trading cards? I love Trump, but this is really causing me to wonder what he’s thinking.
10:15:14 AM by JudyinCanadaCringe worthy.
10:18:45 AM by RurudyneEmbarrassing
10:22:53 AM by clintonh8rPathetic.
His ego is bigger than Obama’s.
what a loser.
10:27:41 AM by wnyI am at a loss of whether I should laugh or cry
10:34:34 AM by dsrtsageThis is a former president of the United States who wants another term to help save our nation, which is fast going down the drain. WHY is he doing this?! I’m sorry, but the ‘optics’ here are terrible. Who’s advising him??
That being said, I’d continue to vote for him if he’s on the ballot. I’m just mystified…
10:38:10 AM by Deo volenteIt’s as if he is announcing to the world that he thinks we are suckers. It’s as if he was sitting around saying, “I could get them to buy anything.”
This is beyond sad.
10:45:53 AM by Vermont LtTrump has gone full retard. This kind of chit is not helpful. Honestly I just don’t get it. Tone deaf is not Trump’s normal behavior.
10:53:41 AM by Georgia Girl 2I’m legitimately having a problem digesting this as reality.
11:04:45 AM by EEGator
In the interest of fairness, I only read about half of the 300+ responses to Trump’s announcement. It’s possible that the remaining 150 or so responses were overwhelmingly favorable to the TrumpCard scam ploy venture. It’s possible.
I tend to think of FreeRepublic as a bellwether for ultra right-wing conservative thought. They celebrated Trump early in the 2016 primary season. They were fully behind his blustery faux patriotism and blatantly ridiculous claim that he, personally, had saved Christmas. They completely believed him every time he shouted about rigged elections.
And he’s losing them. Losing them to DeSantis. True, they’re just trading one huckster for another, but just a few months ago this was unthinkable. Comrade Trump shouldn’t expect a Christmas miracle. In fact, it seems clear to me that Trump is bleeding and there are sharks in the water. (Holiday sharks, you know.)
Pa rum pum pum pum.
gregfallis.com 
“It’s as if he is announcing to the world that he thinks we are suckers.”
I could hear that light bulb go on from way down here.
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Now, if only this guy can move from it’s as if to he IS.
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The speculation on Twitter yesterday was way far off–Speaker of the House, VP choice, something actually governmental. I just hope he paid the artist who created these because he’d famous for not paying the little people.
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I’m betting that there was no ‘artist’ involved and they’re all done with AI.
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That was my first guess with Lensa just appearing on the horizon. But I looked closely at the images and they don’t have the details that typify the current AI. I’m an artist and in my local illustrator group we have been buzzing about this and studying the quality for months. AI may have created the backgrounds, but then they pasted the face in place. It really looks like a passable Photoshop job.
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Midjourney or Stable Diffusion are certainly capable of this kind of work. Better, even. Lensa is not really designed for that sort of process. Midjourney’s quality is phenomenal now on v4.2, and could easily accomplish this kind of thing (in fact, I just did one to see how it would work, and its first effort without any finessing by me is actually superior to the picture in the post above – unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to include an image here).
Mind you, there are probably a queue of lackeys who are happy to do this kind of awful art for Trump in usual way – there was some pretty tragic Trump ‘art’ being made before the AIs came along.
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Yes, those are definitely superior to Lensa! One of Lensa’s giveaways is the dead eyes, and other lacks in natural appearance. Intuitively the cards appeared like a Photoshop layered file to me, but I haven’t actually worked with any of the newer platforms, though other members of our illustrator group have tried them out extensively and I’ll take advantage of studying their work, so this actually could be from one of the better platforms. The tragic Trump art, like he’s a cardboard cutout for the refrigerator to which you can add outfits, Rambo, Jesus. The worst was 3D, though, the gold Trump at CPAC. Wonder where that thing is now?
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I think it looks like a BARELY passable Photoshop job. It’s exactly the sort of shoddy work we expect from any Trump enterprise.
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Yes. I’ve been on the repair end of crap like this since PS arrived on the scene. It’s work “someone’s nephew” did because “he knows a lot about computers.” That’s the mentality with these people, go cheap, quality is not an issue.
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There’s a twist – he isn’t selling these directly. Trump reportedly licensed his name to a company called NFT INT LLC. I like to think he’s avoiding liability.
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It’s worse than that. Kurt Eichenwald did some research and learned that in March Trump set up an entity called CIC (not sure what that stands for) which holds the rights to his image and name for NFT licensing. He licensed it to NFT International, LLC, which coincidentally was also set up in March. NFT International appears to be a mailbox at a UPS Store in a strip mall in Utah, which is registered to a company in Wyoming that’s apparently been a front for lots of dodgy ventures.
You can read more about it here: https://threats.substack.com/p/trumps-trading-card-grift-is-worse
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Melania Trump launches new NFT venture
Reuters. I also read similar in Guardian. That was back in 2021. Hmmmm
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Hmm, I could give up $99 and my email address for one digital card, or I could navigate to the web site using a VPN and take a screenshot of all of the cards (because they are already out there) and keep both the $99 and (more importantly) my email address from going into his rolodex.
As far as scams and grifts go, this one is both weak and obvious.
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Yep.
I’m not checking, but I suspect that the “No Purchase Necessary” notice was bait to harvest more emails.
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Apparently, ALL of the Trump NFTs have been sold. He seems to have ‘earned’ a few million dollars. We have no idea how many of the buyers were foreign nationals or foreign corporations.
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Lol.. Millions and millions, 🤣 (I wish I had trump hand expression emoji)
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🪗
Didn’t see a squeeze box.
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