Steve Bannon, Fellow Trump Ally Bash NFT Release – Rolling Stone
Donald Trump’s latest cash grab has even his most trusted ally rolling his eyes. The former president launched a series of digital NFT trading cards on Thursday to much derision from opponents and apparent frustration from some of his most prominent supporters who believe he should focus on policy with his 2024 re-election campaign off to a rocky start.
On the “War Room” podcast, host Steve Bannon and his guests, right-wing commentators Sebastian Gorka and Steve Cortes, called on Trump to clean house or at least fire whoever conceptualized the absurd stunt.
“We are at war,” Bannon said. “They should be fired today.”
“The president should not be involved in this,” Gorka said. “Whoever wrote that pitch should be fired and should never be involved” in Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign. General Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to Trump, made a similar criticism on a radio show Thursday. “Whoever advised him on that, I would fire them immediately,” Flynn said.
Too many were the trading cards, which sold for $99 each and featured what could be AI-generated images of a slim Trump posing against various backgrounds and in a variety of costumes. Each image is a mad libs of MAGA iconography. Trump gives a thumbs up while holding a basketball. Trump with gold bars marked TRUMP raining down around him. Trump dressed as a superhero cowboy, or rips off his shirt, or on the moon. It is as banal as it is gruesome.
Conservative radio host John Cardillo kicked off the announcement on Twitter, calling it “ridiculously tacky” and that it’s “like he can’t help himself from making these unforced errors.”
Daily Wire founder and host Ben Shapiro sarcastically mocked the announcement on social media, with other commentators describing the NFTs as a symbol of Trump’s political decline. Conservative streamer Tim Pool tweeted that Trump was “basically retired”. Talk show host Jesse Kelly wrote it conservatives needed to “demand improvement. Put down the pom poms. We need a better Trump.”
It even became too much for QAnon followers, for whom Trump is essentially a god-like figure. According to a report from Vice, members of chat rooms and message groups associated with the conspiracy theory called the cards, among other criticisms, a “silly NFT money”. QAnon influencer “QAnon John” called the NFTs “tone deaf to a VAST MAJORITY of Trump’s base.” A few hours later, in what can only be described as classic QAnon logic, he claimed that while at first it was unclear what Trump was trying to achieve with the NFTs, it is “now CLEAR it was a classic troll/prank for to send the MSM into a total frenzy.”
Despite the criticism, Trump seems to have gotten at least one thing right: His most die-hard fans will still pay for whatever he throws at them. The 45,000 NFTs reportedly sold out of their initial release, with some trading for over $8,000. Go figure.
