Surprise! Trump's Trading Card Grift Enrages His Shrinking MAGA Base
Actual screenshot taken from Donald Trump's video announcement of his digital trading cards.
Donald Trump's 'major announcement' Thursday truly exceeded the already exceedingly low expectations.
Trump digital trading cards! Priced to sell at just $99! An exclusive series of 'really incredible artwork' (i.e. hilarious parody) depicting, for instance, Trump as a strapping superhero bearing his sculpted chest, as a cowboy brandishing an American flag atop a white horse, and as an aviator-clad astronaut.
But wait, there's more! Each card comes with a raffle ticket, giving lucky winners the chance to perhaps dine with Trump, hit the links on one of his glorious golf courses, or land an exclusive 1-on-1 Zoom meeting with the man, the myth, the legend!
"Remember, Christmas is coming and this makes a great Christmas gift," Trump said in the video introduction of his new collectibles. The ultimate Holiday grift.
But the most amazing thing about the announcement wasn’t how perfectly pathetic it is for Trump to be hawking digital trading cards online just before Christmas. It’s the fact that some of his MAGA cultists actually whiffed the stench wafting off Trump’s steaming pile of B.S. It was so bad, the Kool-Aid drinkers started setting down their cups to head for the hills.
After right-wing journalist and noted Trump shill John Solomon tweeted out Trump's announcement, a number of his pro-Trump followers responded with dismay, disgust, and even anger (as documented by former Republican and right-wing tracker Ron Filipkowski).
"Trump is becoming a joke," said someone with the handle @PowerDownMedia. "Sad. I really hoped he could live up to his hype. But, he can't."
"are you f(&King kidding me?" seethed @RollTide_2022.
@rtcollins wrote, "Pretty sure I just fell off the Trump train. Unbelievable."
"Has Trump lost his mind really trading cards how the f*** is that going to help our country," wondered @gunner6314.
Over at reddit, conservative commenters were equally as brutal, calling Trump's trading card gambit "one of the cringiest things" ever and incredulously asking "Is... is this a joke?"
Another reddit user responded, "It is a joke, and it's real."
Filipkowski marveled at the fallout, writing, "I have never seen MAGA react like this to anything Trump has ever done."
Apparently Filipkowski wasn't the only one blown away by the savage response. A little over an hour later, Team Trump rushed out a platform of supposed First Amendment reforms, framing them as the real announcement.
"BREAKING: President Trump announces free speech policy plan for 2024," Don Jr. tweeted.
@MAGAIncWarRoom tweeted out Trump’s slap-dash video announcement of the platform, prefacing it with "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT."
The bottom line here is that Trump couldn’t have picked a better time to make a fool of himself. He is perhaps at his weakest moment politically since just before he won the 2016 election. And he is vulnerable and showing signs of desperation—enough so that he rolled out a gloriously mockable and transparent grift and then launched a coverup a little over an hour later.
Two polls this week showed Trump on the rails: Quinnipiac, which found put his approval rating at a 7-year low of 31%; and a USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that just 31% of Republicans and GOP leaners want Trump to run in 2024. Trump was also dragging among Republican voters, just 47% of whom support him making a third bid—down from 60% in July.
Trump's favorability rating in Civiqs tracking has likewise hit a 6-year low at 35%.
The USA Today/Suffolk poll also found Trump losing in a hypothetical head-to-head with Biden, 47% - 40%. Republican voters and GOP leaners also prefer Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Trump by double digits, 56% - 33%. Ouch.
Trump’s entire con has always been that he’s omnipotent and invincible—nothing can take him down. But it’s all beginning to unravel in such an obvious way that even his cultists are starting to see him as the pitiful carnival barker he has always been. And if Trump’s MAGA support really does collapse, he’s toast.
Wouldn’t it be a fitting end if Trump’s cultists stuck with him through his treasonous Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol but finally cut him loose over a set of digital trading cards. What if that actually turns out to be the moment the light bulb came on?
The grift:
\u201cCome for the claim that Trump was a better president than Washington and Lincoln, stay for the "Trump digital trading cards"\u201d— The Republican Accountability Project (@The Republican Accountability Project) 1671121404
The cover up:
\u201cMAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: President Trump has announced his 2024 free speech platform:\n\n- BAN the gov from policing lawful speech\n- FIRE any bureaucrat who has directly or indirectly engaged in censorship\n -BAR federal funds for universities that censor speech\n\u201d— MAGA War Room (@MAGA War Room) 1671129219
Jenifer Fernandez Ancona from Way to Win is our guest on this week’s Daily Kos’ The Brief. When we spoke with Jenifer back in April, she was right about Democratic messaging—and had the data to prove it. More election data has been rolling in from the midterms, and Jenifer is back to talk about what worked and what needs to change in order for the Democratic Party to keep winning.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
