Melania Trump is hawking a $600 gold necklace these days while Donald is peddling a Trump commemorative coin—to go with his sneakers, his picture book, his NFT, his Bible, and pieces of the suit he was wearing during his debate with Joe Biden—to go with pieces of the suit he wore at his mug shot and pieces of the suit he wore at his indictment. Collect them all!
Serious question: Does anyone know why they do this? The Trumps may not be quite as rich as Donald claims, but he's still a billionaire and Melania shares in his wealth. None of this stuff amounts to more than a microscopic part of their net worth and surely doesn't raise their income more than a hair.
So what gives? Aside from the usual snark, does anyone have any idea?
Trump is cheap, super cheap. He would never pass up the most small ball way to make money. Hence making Secret Service agents pay for using his golf carts when protecting him at Trump golf courses. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/trump-files-spy-magazine-prank/
There's an old jape about why a dog licks his own genitals. The punchline is: Bcause he can.
There's your reason.
I think so too- there’s a thrill about being such a cult figure that other humans will pay hundreds of dollars to have a picture of you. It’s the celebrity that they crave, and the merch makes that happen.
Most of Trump's supposed billions are tied up in real estate. I imagine he has constant cash flow problems; his personal outgoings must be enormous despite him getting assorted PACs and the RNC to pick up the tab for a lot of it. It costs virtually nothing to tell some lackeys to run an operation selling tawdry merchandise, and his track record demonstrates it's a foolproof risk-free way of hauling in millions.
+1
+2
this sounds right to me, and additionally there's surely a line of lackeys and lesser conmen lined up pitching these ideas so they can get a skim. trump's amassed tens of millions of devoted idiots willing to shell out seemingly endless cash on literally anything hawked under his name. it's irresistible to his ilk to run and rerun the grift when it's this easy.
Nail. Oh head. Hit.
This, plus remember that Trump has spent a lot of time in the entertainment industry. Merch sales are huge. George Lucas is a billionaire because he held onto the merchandise rights from Star Wars.
Trump knows his fan base, they desperately need to self identify as members of the tribe (see also: Harley Davidson - also massive merch sales).
This, plus it seems like his brand. It’s what he does. Farmers look at a field and imagine crops growing. An artist looks at a blank canvas and imagines a work of art. Trump looks at his fan base and images new ways to scam them.
Trump charity, water, steaks, condos, NFTs, coins, and more. He’s like the Ron Popeil of scammers.
But wait, there’s MORE!
They want to take advantage of the diminishing window of opportunity while Trump is still president. In other words, they’re well aware he may lose.
That’s my read on it, especially now that Malaria has also ramped up her grifting. Gotta make hay while the sun shines, as the old saying goes.
Once they have that big fat “L” tattooed on their foreheads come November, once his Untruth web platform becomes a penny stock at around the same time, it’s gonna be a whole lot harder to convince people to throw $$ their way.
As to cheap, all the old rich are cheap...but they have some class...which Trump does not. Trump is the apotheosis of trailer trash. Kinzinger nailed it:
Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big. He's a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He's a perpetrator who can't stop playing the victim.
Everything about him shouts his inner poverty and bankruptcy,,,including selling pieces of himself to the rubes. A ####-spattered tower of no-account trashiness. And the hillbilly veep of his...he's back in the holler, albeit one that's fancier...when all this is done, he can sell beat-up used cars; that's about his speed and sucker clientele.
Almost poetic, the way you posted this. Well done.
Like Mark Cuban said, Trump is a clown with credit. He was a failure as a real estate developer, and doesn’t manage much property anymore, he licenses his name. He doesn’t have much cash flow from what he does own, because he’s borrowed so much against it. He really does need the money.
This, the debt is key.
Can't do it without snark, contempt, and fury.
"Two years later, experts believe that Mr. Farmer, who had been hired to appraise the value of the historic home where the document was found, had stumbled upon a rare original copy of the Constitution, and its sellers predict that it will be sold for millions at an auction later this week."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/24/us/us-constitution-copy-auction.html
I'm trying in vain to figure out:
(a) What does this have to do with the subject of the blog?
(b) What the hell are the references to snark, contempt, and/or fury?
(c) Why would the existence of a rare antique important document be mentioned in a thread about Donald Trump's worthless trinkets?
It seems worthless today, but in a couple of hundred years archaeologists and historians will find them to be worth something. Or not. Who can say? Otherwise, it’s just a scam.
Did you just compare Trumps trinkets, chachkis and other items of dubious value to the constitution of the United States? Hardly a valid comparison.
LOL
Justin is a nihilistic ghoul; his schtick is to recommend that everybody just give up fighting to improve the world on the theory that it is pointless and the people who are hurt aren't him anyway.
So yeah, he is likely arguing that a garbage trump coin could be historically just as valuable as the constitution, because he wants you to stop caring, like he has.
Have you looked at prices for "collectables" on ebay?
Tons of people collect stuff and attempt to resell it once it's out of manufacture. FFS, people are still selling Beanie Babies. Valuable baseball cards can go for millions.
The majority of things sold, depreciate, especially things sold as collectables.
"Beanie Baby bubble"; "most Beanie Babies aren't worth much more than their original $5 price tag" [not adjusted for inflation]
https://www.moneydigest.com/1617279/unexpected-value-old-beanie-babies-stuffed-animal-today/
It's Trump's way of rubbing the country's nose in shit because he's triumphed over establishment Republicans, Joe Biden (imperiling Democrats' chances this year by deciding to run for re-election), Merrick Garland (for being a wimp), Fani Willis (for letting romance wreck a solid RICO case), all major media (for bothsidesism and sanewashing), Jamie Raskin et al (impeachment for impossible to prove 'incitement' instead of the 'solid dereliction of duty'), Gavin Newsom (who helped get Alito and Robert on a SCOTUS that destroyed equal treatment under the law with the immunity ruling), the late Notorious RBG (who's selfishness cost a SCOTUS seat), and all those other people in positions of power and influence who let an adjudicated rapist, career criminal and traitor slide - and empower MAGA nation.
What Trump is doing with the trinkets is a Power Move, demonstrating his contempt over norms of propriety - which he can do because of the failures of so many to stop him when they had the chance..
Well. I don’t disagree…but nobody really got that trump is the dirtiest little street fighter to come down the pike since his lawyer Roy Cohn set the stage. We should have known when he trotted out Bill Clinton’s girlfriends in his debate with Hillary..Maggie Haberman warned nobody has seen a politician lie like Trump…if you go up against him…he will find the dirt…exaggerate it..repeat it or better yet just make stuff up. He’s a bed bug….and people( who we are not supposed to call stupid) vote for him…
Just to clarify a minor but relevant point...
Gullible is not the same as stupid. There is a partial overlap of the two sets, but far from total.
Good lord am I sick of hearing about Roy Cohn. Cohn was a shit lawyer, got his ass disbarred for stealing client funds and falsifying a will, and died a penniless closeted bastard. Just because Trump--a trustafarian weirdo--fluked his way into the presidency is no reason to start raining superlatives of any sort on Cohn (or Trump, for that matter).
The other side is working night and day to pump Trump up as the bestest and greatest and strongest; let's not help them in their mythmaking.
Trump is an asshole, and an accident of history. Let's leave it at that, and just make sure we put the boot in properly this November.
Every so often, some cult leader predicts the end of the world on a certain date. Thus far, they have always been wrong. It is quite traumatic for most of their followers (though not all), and many have a difficult time adapting to life after the world continues on.
Being certain of Trump as an abherration and one who will not be back in the white house in 2025 strikes me as somewhat similar. Work to prevent it, but do not act as if we can know the future.
That's why I said the bit about putting the boot in. My main point is that we need to stop buying into the maga-cult's mythmaking. Trump is not a singular figure; he's not the -est of anything, really. He's just a bad candidate, who would make a bad president (which we know because he already was a particularly bad president).
Trump isn't a man of vision, charisma, leadership, or any other quality that makes him a Force To Be Reckoned With; let's not lose sight of that. He's a rambling weirdo with orange face paint who can't admit he's bald. Could he win this election? Absolutely! But it doesn't help things to be swayed by the other side's conviction that Trump is some sort of ordained superhuman figure. He's not.
Thanks for pointing this out. Even when used in a negative context (worst president ever, biggest liar in the world, etc.) for Trump and his fans this way of maximalist phrasing still represents a kind of power move. We all need to stop this. He's just a bad person, a con man and a grifter, and that's that.
He's the floating turd in the toilet bowl our politics has become. And to offer a slightly disgusting metaphor to yours, this time we make sure we get rid of him with the first flush.
I doubt anyone cares that he's selling his trinkets. He sells them because he knows his customer base. They'd buy anything he sells. It's easy money for him. His true power move is the constant lying. No politician in my life time has lied so often and so egregiously as Trump and has never paid a price for it.
Full of horse hockey.
Only Democrats have agency in your world?
I would guess everything he sells are licensing deals. Someone else is doing all the work. Even pieces of his suit. They're probably scrap cloth bought wholesale.
I don't think it's that complicated. If you look at his campaign, or even his entire political career, as a kind of grift, then this is only an extension of that. They're one and the same.
I guess this qualifies as "the usual snark" but it feels like a going-out-of-business sale.
I believe that Trump's basic character, aside from his overlaid narcissism and poor values, is essentially that of a salesman working on commissions. In another life, he'd have been a used car salesman who upsold you on a set of new tires to go with your car. Basically, a P.T. Barnum type of guy who sells shiny objects to rubes.
Most of these guys end up broke, because their mindset says "I earn these big commissions so I can also spend big." They are terrible at analyzing facts or predicting future consequences. They really need the help of rational-thinking guys like Vance or William Barr to keep them solvent and out of jail.
Trump's tragedy is that he was born into a rich family run by a racist and a narcissist, and because "no one was treated worse or more unfairly", he was unable to rise above his circumstances and he took on those characteristics himself.
I'm just sorry that he ended up the way he did, and that we got to know him so well.
Money amplifies your character, but it doesn't make you smarter, or a better human being.
I forgot to answer the question,
"Serious question: Does anyone know why they do this? The Trumps may not be quite as rich as Donald claims, but he's still a billionaire and Melania shares in his wealth. None of this stuff amounts to more than a microscopic part of their net worth and surely doesn't raise their income more than a hair.
So what gives? Aside from the usual snark, does anyone have any idea?"
Trump sells shiny objects to rubes because that's who he is. The same way that Kevin rationally analyzes data to understand potential threats in the world and warn us about them. The same way that I'm a serial company-starter. We do these things because that's who we are.
Our faults are that, when we are good at one thing, we tend to do that one thing to the exclusion of the other things which would make us more rounded human beings.
Adam. in re: your last sentence--
The other side of the "fault" coin is this well-known advice:
Don't spread yourself too thin; focus on what you do best, and be the best at that.
Ken Rhodes, I completely agree with you. It is best to be in a position where you can use your best talents to their greatest potential.
I've found, after much experience, that this happens when you are part of a team which includes other individuals who have skill sets that you don't have.
Unfortunately, the better you are at doing something, the less good you are at doing other things. Our brains are bandwidth-limited.
If you can give agency to someone to do the things that you aren't good at doing, but they are good at doing, then you both will benefit (and profit). Because they probably aren't good at doing what you can do. And if you are both going in the same direction, then you have covered a lot of the problems that you will encounter.
+++
"Trump sells shiny objects to rubes because that's who he is."
I'd go a bit farther than that, and push back at Kevin's assumption that "None of this stuff amounts to more than a microscopic part of their net worth."
Think about that awful Apprentice show. Would any real businessman who headed up an actual large and successful enterprise (Jobs, Buffet, Dimon, Bezos, Walton, etc.) say to themself "Y'know what would be a great use of my time? Being a game show host!" and then block out huge chunks of their schedule to sit in makeup chairs, pretend to do business things on a teevee studio set, shoot promos, etc. to the neglect of their actual company? Of course not. But Trump did.
This is because (a) he is not that rich, and (b) he is not a businessman. He is a trust fund baby, and one who would have been richer had he just taken his inheritance and invested it in the S&P500, instead of in his stupid real estate deals.
The Trump Organization is just a licensing operation. People come to Trump, say "can I give you money if I get to put your name on a [golf course/hotel/necktie/stupid coin/trading card]?" and Trump says "yes" and then watches teevee while congratulating himself on what a great biznessman he is. That's it. That's who he is.
Yes, that's who he is. But a quick note about his golf courses - no one pays him for his name on those. Trump bought a bunch of money-losing golf courses, and they are still losing money. That's why, in financial statements, he discloses **revenues**, not **profits**, from his courses. (He does get free publicity from them, and they enhance his reputation as a "billionaire", but they lose money, which doesn't help with his cash flow issues.)
Yup. Like I said, he's not a businessman, and he'd have been better off investing his inheritance in index funds than in making investment decisions (like buying golf courses and casinos) himself.
I mean, ffs, what shrewd investor would base their portfolio on individual golf courses and hotels? It's a mature industry with few barriers to entry, and thus it's almost impossible to develop a true competitive advantage aside from being niche and small (say, an individual upscale B&B or country club) or huge and scaled (like Marriott or something), neither of which fits with having a closely held $1billion-scale family business.
Hell, if Trump had liquidated his golf courses in 2016 and just bought stock in Hilton and Marriott (or even put the money in a blind trust based on index funds, like an ethical candidate for president would), he'd be about 5x richer now. In other words, Trump's core "business" is ridiculously mismanaged and underperforms in its relevant market.
"Money amplifies your character, but it doesn't make you smarter, or a better human being."
Disagree. Money makes people worse. One of the few things about Christianity that I actually do respect is the fact that Jesus clearly and repeatedly told his followers that wealth is toxic to character:
1) There was the rich young man who wanted to become one of Jesus' followers, and Jesus told him, "Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then come follow me."
2) There was the parable of the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus. Lazarus died and went to heaven, the rich man died and went to Hell. Why did the rich man go to Hell? The story doesn't say. Jesus apparently assumed, and expected his listeners to assume, that rich people just go to Hell.
3) "Woe to you who are rich! You have already received your reward."
4) And that famous story about camels and needles.
The clear and repeated teaching from Christianity's founder that wealth hinders good character is almost entirely ignored today across Christendom, and that is to the detriment of Christianity.
Trump and Musk are not unusually bad characters compared to other rich people. They are just unusual in being so public about it.
Of course, that doesn't keep pastors these days from filling megachurches by preaching the "prosperity gospel".
I sigh at this.
The camels and needles line tells us that Jesus didn't say it was impossible for the rich to enter heaven, just very difficult.
True, but that just contradicts many of the other things Jesus said about the rich. The "Woe to you" line is unequivocal.
By the way, contradictions like these are part of the reason I am no longer a Christian. The message of the Bible is hopelessly muddled and laughably inaccurate on many point of history. But the Old Testament does have some bits of genuinely good literature, and *some* of the teachings attributed to Jesus are genuinely wise.
"The clear and repeated teaching from Christianity's founder that wealth hinders good character".
I disagree. I don't think Jesus said wealth makes one evil, but that holding on to one's wealth while others starve proves one is evil. You're not evil the moment you win a lottery, as long as you use it to help others. The point being that you don't stay rich for long that way. The camel and the needle story is along those lines.
This could explain why wealth is the only sin Jesus doesn't seem to forgive. The robber who repents can be pardoned. But the rich don't repent for their lack of care for others; otherwise they wouldn't still be rich.
He does it because he's a grifter, and grifters gotta grift. You might as well ask why Kenneth Copeland is still doing his thing. He does it because it is who he is.
Think it was in "The Grifters" that Donald Westlake laid out the grifter/con man mentality. Your money is their money. The accident that put their money in your wallet must be rectified by their grift. If it cleans you out, well, it was never yours to begin with.
They are really Ferengi.
It may be motivated by an unconscious fear of becoming poor, realistic or not.
Magic talismans. After the apocalypse the lucky few will be able to hold these up to reflect the sunlight into the eyes of the pet eating zombie hordes, and it will overwhelm their feeble brains and they'll all just give it all up and go home, or burst into flame, one or the other, and then you'll be safe. Safe to never vote again, because you won't have to. Everything will already be done.
He might not be a billionaire if you subtract all of his actual liabilities, including the money he owes in his lawsuit losses and his lawyers. Even if his net worth, because of his DJT stocks, makes him a billionaire, he can't liquidate without losing significant value and the taxes that will slash it further.
In all likelihood, he always gets an advance from the promoter on top of a promised royalty/commission/payout for each item sold. Because he's always short on cash, this is beneficial.
Plus, he's always been a salesman, starting from his first real estate transaction. It's all he does, all he knows, and all he can do.
Beyond the money, its ego. Trump loves seeing his face on a coin etc, similar to many dictators.
He's a grifter and all he see's are 74 million easy marks, ripe fruit easy to pick. Its also the malignant narcissism, being able to sell this shit drives his need for adulation, like his rallies. Of course if he loses, he will likely be facing continued large legal bills (assuming he doesn't stiff his lawyers)
All this is of course chump change compared to the big con, DJT, whereby he could still pull out over $1B and the saps will be left holding the bag.
I realize he wants to effect the return of the mark, but that went euro years ago…
One thing that is definitely "up" is flattering Trump by choosing a 20 year old photo to make the image on the coin from...
There is certainly the ego boost of knowing people are buying this crap because they are his devoted fans. Then there is the ego boost from "outsmarting" others by selling worthless crap for a lot of money. Then there is his identity as a salesman. - he can't give up an opportunity to make money, no matter how crass. And the added revenue doesn't hurt.
Trump has never been a "quiet luxury" kind of rich person. He has always wanted to rub other people's faces in his success. These trinkets let him do that in thousands of homes simultaneously.
Ego. Contempt. And, in a small way, it makes the rupes a participant in the corruption.
I just figured it was money laundering/kickbacks
Some pathologies cannot be understood by ordinary people. Like that of the rich man sitting on a doorstep trying to figure out how to get hold of the coins in the homeless person's tin can. Or the Monty Python merchant banker sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaJG7udlfEM
Even though Harris a public figure, an item bearing her likeness must be licensed yes? On cable I’ve been seeing ads for a pair of coins where their relative sales are supposed to be a prediction. One coin with the image of Trump, the other of Harris.
No, not really. You can license it, but getting people to stop selling their own pieces of art isn't easy.
From an old Mother Jones article, "in 1990, Spy sent 13-cent checks to the world's richest people. Only two cashed them: an arms dealer & Donald Trump"
Kevin's blog allows links in comments. Just not as the opening text. So:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/trump-files-spy-magazine-prank/
Frankly, I'd probably cash such a check. Might take a while to get around to it. "You are going to spend however much to send me a check, sure, I'll go ahead and cash it."
I also suspect that even in 1990, Trump had flunkies handling checks.
Edit: following the books link from that article suggests the prank itself was 1989 - dates on the checks and the rubber-stamp endorsements further supporting the check handling being by flunky.
Meh. He is a grifter and he has a cult. It's basically him selling them holy relics. You too for just $50, plus postage, can have a piece of the Blessed One.
Steve
The pieces of his suit deal was obviously similar to Catholic relics, which could be something touched to something the saint had touched, or something. When I was a kid in the Middle Ages (actually, this is pretty Middle Agey) there actually were "holy" cards with a painting of some saint on them and a little bit of fabric or something below that.
Trump is 1. incredibly insecure, 2. unfathomably narcissistic and 3. in perpetual thrall to the huckster's dictum "A.B.G." -- Always Be Grifting. We might add "perennially short of cash" as well. Add all that up, and you get shit like cheap-ass gold spray-painted sneakers, Trump NFTs, and now collectable coins.
Another thing, if this schlock is to have any future sales value, you need Trump to win and will do anything to help (yard signs, bumper stickers, etc.) and yours is a vote Trump can count on.
Grifters gotta grift!
Many of these grifts follow the old Trump strategy: minimal actual involvement by TFG except for use of his NIL and sometimes a sales pitches by the big guy himself. Trump attracts other grifters like flies to a turd.