Former U.S. President Donald Trump claims he launched his NFT collection due to the art images being “sort of cute.”
According to a report by Decrypt, Trump’s NFT collection was not launched in an effort to make money or as an investment, but rather to showcase the artistic creations. Trump made his comments in an interview with One America News. The former Commander in Chief explained that he “loved the art” of the NFTs, which led him to launch the collection.
He continued,
I’m looking at this stuff and I’m saying, ‘that’s sort of cute, that might sell.’ It set like a record. It’s been incredible.
The NFT collection, which launched in December 2022, was teased ahead of time as a “major announcement” by the former President. According to the report, the collection was met with backlash from both Trump supporters and detractors, with several of the Polygon NFTs — which were sold for $99 a piece — containing watermarks from stolen stock photos.
The NFT collection was promoted as a showcase of the “amazing art” of the former President’s life and career. The collectibles featured images ranging from Trump depicted as a cowboy to a superhero.
Trump was asked during the interview why he decided to launch the collection amidst a down market for crypto. The former President claimed he “didn’t view [the collection] as an investment” and instead found the entire project to be “cute.”
According to NFT tracker CryptoSlam, Trump’s collection has generated over $10 million in sales, with more than 15,000 owners and roughly 30,000 transactions.
A follow-up report by Decrypt published on 10 January 2022 said that “secondary market trading volume for the Trump Digital Trading Cards project hit a new daily low of just over $21,000 on Sunday, per data from CryptoSlam,” which “marks a more than 99% decrease in daily volume from the peak day on December 17, when more than $3.5 million worth of the NFTs were traded soon after the original primary sale.”
