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The team behind Trump NFTs already has one failed project
Days after former US President Donald Trump dropped his NFT collection, more and more bizarre details emerge. To be sure, the Donald Trump NFT Trading Card sold out in less than a day, raising over $4.5 million. However, according to NFT Twitter scouts, the project has dubious origins. Apparently, the team behind the NFT collection already has another failed project behind them. It gets worse – the artwork appears to have been stolen.
Here’s a detailed look at what may have been behind Trump’s trading card collection:
Who Created Trump NFTs?
According to Collect Trump Short website, NFT INT, LLC created the NFTs. However, the company is “not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump.” And here’s the thing, nobody really knows who actually owns this company.
Meanwhile, a Discord Security Auditor, who goes by the name “Plum” on Twitter, alleged that Dylan and Bill Zanker, who created Sylvester Stallone’s PlanetSly NFT collection, are behind the Trump NFTs. They claimed that Dylan had contacted them in January 2022 for Discord security services for the PlanetSly project. However, the duo ultimately did not take up Plum’s services. The project itself failed to fully launch, with the last tweet from them being in June.
“When the Trump NFT launched, it was immediately apparent that it was done by the same people behind the Stallone project,” Plum tweeted. “The art looked very similar, the web pages were almost identical (even down to the FAQ text).”
Also, “both the Trump website and Stallone both have their ‘sponsors’ listed at addresses in Park City, Utah – which is where Bill Zanker lives. They are not ‘real’ places, but they are UPS Store PO Boxes.”
The artist – Clark Mitchell, was also allegedly the same. Likewise, the email was used by both Trump NFT and PlanetSly. And here’s where things get interesting — Plum claimed that Trump and Bill Zanker are partners, even writing a 2009 book and hosting a charity together. But shortly after Trump launched his collection, the project teams allegedly “hidden, changed or scrubbed” their social media profiles. According to Plum, these findings raise concerns.
Trump accused of using copyrighted images
Since Trump launched his NFT collection, many have come forward to accuse him of using copyrighted images for his collection. For example, Twitter user SkeeterBombay pointed out that the Trump golf NFT contained a Reuters photo.
“​​Trump golf NFT is a slimmed and photoshopped clip from a David Moir/Reuters file photo from 2011, when Trump played at his Scotland club,” they tweeted. “Even the pleats in his pants are the same, lolz!” They also questioned whether Trump had sought Reuters’ permission to use the photo.
Meanwhile, crypto news account WhaleChart noted that Trump “borrowed images from all over the internet.” Apparently, some of these also included images of clothing brands from Amazon and Walmart. Ironically, some even reportedly had the Shutterstock and Adobe logos. Similarly, The Young Turks journalist Matthew Sheffield showed that Trump’s NFT image of himself as a cowboy was a “slightly altered” Amazon image.
Many Twitter users alleged that this was a clear case of copyright infringement. Several others also called the Trump NFT collection a scam. It remains to be seen whether any of the photo owners will take action against the former US president.
