Donald Trump’s bizarre plan to sell 45,000 “digital trading cards” featuring the former president looking like a superhero or a cowboy or smashing a golf ball appears to be operating out of a mailbox at a UPS store in a Park mall City.
The former president teased a “big announcement” this coming Thursday that raised speculation he would announce a 2024 vice presidential run.
But in a surreal unveiling, the former president appeared in a video offering his loyal fans and supporters the opportunity to pick up one of the digital images for the low, low price of $99. Some of the offerings include an astronaut, a powerful fighter in boxing gloves and a racing driver.
In the video, which opens with an animation of the 45th president shooting rays from his eyes, Trump boasts that he’s “better than Lincoln, better than Washington,” before offering the chance to pick up one of the digital collectibles .
But wait, there’s more!
Anyone who buys 45 of the cards – a total cost of $4,455 – is promised a ticket to a gala dinner with the former president. And anyone who buys a card is automatically entered into a contest for prizes that include a one-on-one dinner with Trump, a one-on-one meeting with him, an hour of golf among the winning group at one of his golf courses, and more.
All told, someone stands to make nearly $4.5 million from the odd endeavor.
In the video, Trump says the digital collectibles are “just like baseball cards,” but they really aren’t. They are NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which are essentially digital images with a unique digital signature that are sent to buyers and downloaded.
There are no returns or refunds.
It’s all strange in itself. But the fine print on the website lists the company offering the NFTs — the oddly named NFT INT LLC — as having an address in a Park City strip mall, not far from a dry cleaner, a vape shop and an Asian bistro.
“Suite 427” listed for NFT INT does not appear to exist at that address. All the businesses in the mall have letters to distinguish them, not numbers.
But at the end of the mall is a UPS store — identified as the letter H in the chain of stores — and there are dozens of businesses in Park City and elsewhere that list their address as being in the mall with “Suite H” and a number that indicates that they rent mailboxes in the store.
In fact, one of the selling points that UPS highlights on its website is that renting a mailbox from the store allows the owner to use a physical address, as opposed to just a PO Box number.
This is where this ridiculous search gets even weirder.
I was able to find two Utah businesses registered at the address and use Suite H427. But when I contacted the owner, he said it was his mailbox, but he had absolutely nothing to do with Trump NFTs.
“Nothing personal, but I’m not a Trump fan,” said the owner of the box. “I just hope he doesn’t cause too much havoc.”
A UPS Store executive said they could not release any information about any of the mailbox owners without a subpoena or court order — which is fair.
NFT INT is not registered in Utah, but appears to be registered in Delaware, which is known for not disclosing information about corporate registrants. The Twitter bio promoting Trump NFTs says it is located in Palm Beach, Florida. And there are 20 Florida businesses that list their address as the Park City UPS Store — though many are owned by the same person.
There is also an NFT International LLC that registered in Cheyenne, Wyoming last year, but the company’s registered agent is Capital Administrations, itself a company designed to hide principals in other firms. Journalist Kurt Eichenwald said the address of Capital Administrations is the same as another umbrella company that has served as the registered agent for many companies, including some involved in past criminal activity.
That leads to another layer: There are two companies registered in Utah – NFT Ventures and NFT Funding Partners – both of which use the Cheyenne address as their business address, while using another company that acts as a registered agent for thousands of Utah companies.
It’s like a snake eating itself, except in this case we never find out who the snakes really are.
I sent a message via the press inquiries link about the Trump NFTs but have not heard back.
Right now, at least, it seems plausible that the person or persons responsible for this “digital trading card” oddity could live in or around Park City. Who it is definitely uses the mailbox. But it’s also possible they live in Florida or Wyoming or somewhere else.
Whoever is behind it has gone to great lengths to hide who they really are – which should tell us something about the legitimacy of the business.
I think we can say that while Trump is certainly not a better president than Washington and Lincoln, he has proven far more adept at going to extraordinary lengths to cash in on what was once the most respected office in the land.
But what can you do? Grifters are going to care.
