Topline
Former President Donald Trump boasted his second batch of digital playing cards sold out in “record” time and generated roughly $4.6 million after he released them Tuesday afternoon, though financial disclosure forms show the former president’s cut of the revenue from his first multimillion-dollar batch of NFTs may have been smaller than expected.
Former President Donald Trump’s digital trading cards sold out in hours Tuesday.
Key Facts
Trump said his “Series 2” NFTs sold out just under five hours after he announced their release on his social media platform Truth Social, saying in a social media post: “Hope everyone is Happy, Healthy, and Wealthy. CONGRATULATIONS!”
Trump released 47,000 of the cards Tuesday, including 46,000 on the site collecttrumpcards.com, selling them at $99 each, including both one-of-a-kind and limited edition cards, with images of the former president as an electric guitar-wielding rockstar, grill-master, monster-trucker and George Washington crossing the Delaware River.
The release comes just over four months after the 2024 GOP presidential candidate released his first batch of cards: a collection of 45,000 limited-edition NFTs at $99 each, which sold out in a day for a total of nearly $4.4 million.
Financial disclosure forms, however, show Trump personally took in between $100,000 and $1 million from the first batch through a licensing agreement with a company called CIC Digital LLC, which reportedly stands for commander in chief (Trump also made over $5 million in speaking engagements through a company called CIC Ventures LLC).
The digital cards will draw another 10% in royalties for any sales on the secondary market, and Trump may have earned more from the initial NFT sale after the disclosure form’s December 15 cutoff date, which is the same day the NFTs were released, the New York Times notes.
It’s unclear whether Trump’s most recent NFT sale has the same financial structure as the first, or whether he’ll receive a similar cut of the proceeds (Forbes has reached out to Trump’s team for comment).
Tangent
Trump, who faces multiple lawsuits and was indicted earlier this month over hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election to hide alleged affairs with three separate women, also announced the release of the cards on Facebook and Instagram, marking his first Instagram post since January 2021. Trump had been reinstated to the social media platform following his two-year suspension by Meta over posts surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot.
Key Background
Trump released the first series of digital playing cards in December, a month after he announced his presidential bid, after teasing a “major announcement” and saying “America needs a superhero” on Truth Social. The first series included images of Trump as a superhero and film star and a sweepstakes contest for a private dinner and golfing tee time with Trump. Shortly after its release, however, both Democrats and some of his GOP allies took to mocking it, including former advisers Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, who said they would fire the person that advised Trump to sell NFTs.
Further Reading
Trump Releases Digital Trading Cards—Again—After First Batch Of NFTs Sells Out In One Day And Raises Eyebrows (Forbes)
Trump’s ‘Major Announcement’ Was To Hawk His $99 NFTs (Forbes)
Donald Trump’s ‘Digital Trading Cards’ Sold Out In One Day — Netting $4.4 Million (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/04/19/trumps-digital-trading-cards-sell-out-again-for-46-million-but-its-unclear-how-much-he-made/