The most important thing about Trump's trading cards is NOT the 4.5mil he made.

[CincyDem]

Each one of those NFTs represent a direct, untraceable money pipeline straight to TFG with no expiration date.

Here’s how it works.

For every future sale of any of these NFTs, TFG gets 10% of the selling price. If I had bought one at $100 bucks, TFG gets the 100 less some fees.

Today, I sell that NFT for 700 bucks. I get 630 less fees and trump gets 70.

The guy who bought it from me sells it for 500 cuz the market is weaker. He gets 450 less fees and Trump gets 50. And so on and so on…

Here’s the catch. The sales are anonymous and untraceable.

If someone wanted to “send” trump 1,000,000 in untraceable funds, all they need is two separate accounts and one of those NFTs. One wallet can “buy” the NFT from the other for 10,000,000. Voila…trump gets his million and the person with the two wallets has their 9 million.

When you ask “who would pay 10 million for one of those cards?”…easy…anyone who wants to funnel a million bucks into his pocket. A sale happens when a buyer and a seller agree on a price…any price. So yeah, these things are going to trade at millions before it’s over.

Then…they can do the exact same thing tomorrow…selling it back to the original account for another 10 million…and of course trump get another million.

This can go on daily…for-f’ing-ever.

These bullshit “cards” are the cornerstone of the grift of all grifts. They’re like an anonymous deposit window that can pour money into his pocket.

F’ing grift of all time.

[FakeNoose]

1. It's all in bitcoins, am I right?

That eliminates most Americans as possible customers.

[CincyDem]

9. Not sure why.

I suspect there’s more than a few places in the world that an enterprising American can get an anonymous wallet (crypto speak for an “account”).

And I’m pretty sure I can keep my crypto off line in my own personal cold storage drive vs leaving at some crypto exchange (like keeping cash in my mattress vs putting it in the bank).

I think it’ll take SEC and CFTC years to figure our rules and then years to start enforcing them.

Net…I’m sure for the near term, Americans can contribute to this grift too.

[reACTIONary]

19. The secondary market...

... seems to be in etherum, a bitcoin competitor. But i'm sure the original purchase price was paid in cold, hard cash.

[NullTuples]

62. Or CryptoRuble, the 'coin Putin commissioned that's only for foreign transactions

[womanofthehills]

46. NFT's are sold on the Ethereum blockchain. (ETH)

Definitely more young people and artists have digital wallets.

[DinahMoeHum]

2. The whole thing is TTFW - Too Tacky For Words

[dchill]

10. Which makes it PFT. Perfect for Trump.

[Walleye]

3. Trading cards? As in trading for top-secret documents to foreign countries

[NullTuples]

29. As in, possibly an auction for those documents.

As the back and forth buying happens with ever increasing price, whoever is holding the trading card after the last bid gets the document.

[Walleye]

32. Well it seems he has a large inventory of classified documents to sell

[NullTuples]

39. Doesn't have to be 1:1 - the Saudi Prince need only buy one NFT

and then they can sell it back to Trump for face value. Then they buy it back again for a million. No paper trail.

[Fla Dem]

49. My initial thought when the "Sold Out" announcement was made.

Putin bought a lot of Trump Trading Cards and if he did, he's expecting something back.

I just can't believe that 450,000 US citizens each purchased a card. That would be $99 per card if they each bought 1.

Let's say they bought 2 cards. That would be at a cost of$198.

We're to believe that there are 225,000 US citizens crazy enough to buy 2 of these cards?

Most of his older dolt followers, wouldn't even know what a digital card is or even how to access it. Plus why wouldn't they be concerned that there is some embedded spy code in these digital cards.

No way.

Some big money and scurrilous activity involved here and the whole thing stinks to high heavens.

[Walleye]

51. Oh yes. When he made the major announcement I thought, this stinks out loud

Then when they all sold out the next day I knew who is not only crooked but he was doing it right our face, just for the fun of it

[lakercub]

53. It could be

one of those things like Fox News "authors" do where Fox buys tons of the books to artificially goose the numbers. Then it's just a matter of discovering who bought this nonsense in bulk (RNC, Russia, Right Wing media, all of the above) in order to launder money/buy access.

[Delphinus]

4. Great explanation

Thank you!

[Tetrachloride]

5. What does Trump fear more? A perp walk or Riker's ?

Epstein made his choice

or

someone made it for him.

[johnnyfins]

24. POVERTY

[NullTuples]

26. Not likely. At the speed of our justice system he can move most of it elsewhere.

Last edited Sun Dec 18, 2022, 06:57 PM - Edit history (1)

So long as he has properties, businesses and accounts outside the USA.

[ancianita]

54. As soon as any of this money turns into US dollars, it will hit any clearing bank in Manhattan,

and some unknown holder can be traced. All Manhattan clearing banks are under the direct jurisdiction of US federal courts. As this moves around the nets, it probably will turn into dollars at some point.

[NullTuples]

58. Um, or it's just funneled through shell companies to move it between currencies and

the contracts just end up looking like every day business.

[ancianita]

59. It can still be traced, because those companies will still use banks. So even if shells hide

routing, any transfer into any bank even within Russia, gets a hit in Manhattan. Investigations start with Subpoena 1782.

[NullTuples]

61. How is it traced, please? Like, specifically...

His accountant(s) can move the money, split it between different crypto currencies, cash them out via shell companies & invoice those companies for services...all outside of US jurisdiction if it's advantageous to do so. Polygon / MATIC, the crypto coin his NFT's are built on, is based out of Bengaluru, India. Polygon, by the way is helping the government to form India's crypto regulation.

[ancianita]

63. I'm not a forensic accountant, but can run by you what was done to find the

launderers of Russian money from the Magnitsky case. It's not the crypto that can catch Trump up; it's when any currency or crypto is changed to dollars that can trip Trump and his operation up. So far the plan looks legal. How the money is handled might not be.

Anyone can trace dollars by using the 1782 subpoena. It's a little known feature of the international banking system: whenever money is transferred in dollars -- at ANY point in all the routing, even between two banks inside Russia -- that moment touches a US clearing bank for a fraction of a second, leaving a permanent record.

All US currency clearing banks are headquartered in Manhattan, under the direct jurisdiction of US courts. If it's in dollars, it's in New York. Which also falls under the prosecutorial jurisdiction of the SDNY, part of the DOJ.

Subpoena those banks, get their records, use that information to reconstruct the money trail (easier when you're dealing in tens of millions), trace the money to a location, financial entity, and/or person and go from there.

There are whole Treasury units that do this work (Secret Service might still be one of their investigative units), along with the IRS (because of defrauding the tax man).

Trump can only route crypto for so long, and as long as it doesn't turn into dollars, he can breathe; as soon as he or anyone he's received money from, has used dollars, he can become a person of interest among others in this setup.

This isn't about mysterious sleuthing. It is about sources and methods, though. If I knew the sources and methods, I'd tip off the bad guys. Which is what you're asking for, but no forensic system is going to tell either of us unless we're under contract to pay them to find out; and even then, not the details about how they find the scamsters, or methods they used.

I'm reminded of the Panama and Paradise Papers, all the lists of account holders in offshore shell companies (Delaware is an offshore tax haven, bigger than Cayman), and yet afterward, we never heard what happened to those account holders of wealth hoarding.

This could take a while. But it can be done.

[NullTuples]

64. That's why he'd keep it out of the US for as long as possible until it can be blended in with...

...regular business transactions via exchange + transfers between companies he owns inside & out of the USA.

But really, there's no need to bring it in as USD all at once, at all. Some can be brought out as some other currency and used to buy property in the USA which is then sold. And so on. Very little needs to be in USD until it's "clean".

[calimary]

34. I'd guess anonymity.

A condition in which nobody knows who he is, and even fewer even give half a damn.

He's little more than a two-legged dog who will pee anywhere and everywhere, to leave his mark anywhere and everywhere.

[Tetrachloride]

36. Winner winner. this got a smile

[speak easy]

57. Trump would rather be the Tiger King than a nobody.

[TygrBright]

6. Except it's all not-real money until someone exchanges the shitcoin for actual cash. n/t

[CincyDem]

12. Neither is the money in your checking account.

As long as both parties in a transaction recognize it’s common value, it’s no different than any other currency.

If I want to buy a yacht for 10 mil, the seller would probably take 12 mil in crypto. Now I got a boat without turning my crypto into cash.

[TygrBright]

13. The grocery store isn't taking shitcoin yet. Nor is my mortgage holder. Or the gas station. n/t

[CincyDem]

15. Agree completely.

And the gang playing this game has seen the inside of a grocery store, gas station or mortgage lender in their lives.

Is above our pay grade.

[womanofthehills]

47. I read you can buy a gift certificate for Whole Foods with bitcoin

But you can’t use bitcoin in Whole Foods.

[NullTuples]

27. All it takes is a shell company at each end to buy & cash out in some agreed upon hard currency

Boom, no trail. Trump can easily move funds around between different shell companies, given how many he has.

[electric_blue68]

40. Isn't there some kind of souped up Digital Savvy Forensic Account type investigator(s) out there?

[NullTuples]

44. Some NFT systems are specifically designed to prevent that.

[electric_blue68]

45. Yeah, well. Had to ask, just in case there could be.

[William Seger]

50. "As long as both parties in a transaction recognize it's common value"

Aye, there's the rub! If you look at the price charts for cryptocurrency, you can see why it is quite different from practical currencies: The perceived value is much too volatile to be a practical currency because it's entirely controlled by the whims of speculators trying to get rich quick. That's exactly the opposite of what you want for a medium of exchange; you don't want the value dropping 20% overnight because of a Tweet, or going up 20% right after you traded. Cryptocurrencies much more resemble Beanie Babies than dollars.

[Midnight Writer]

7. So some wealthy patrons could churn these cards, selling them back and forth,

at higher and higher prices, and keep giving Donald an endless supply of laundered cash.

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. Trump's problem is that his brand is tanking

And his influence is drying up and his debts are substantial. The value of buying Trump isn't what it used to be.

[NullTuples]

28. He's still selling the promise of 2024 &/or his MAGA army. Plus, paybacks for past favors. And...

And it's highly likely he still has marketable classified documents.

For all we know, this was the auction for them.

Whoever bids highest on the back and forth transactions wins the US state secrets.

[Walleye]

33. I will believe that completely, until I hear some other credible explanation

[central scrutinizer]

11. But why funnel money into a dying brand?

What’s the upside? It’s like pouring money into a company making VCRs unless you can find someone stupid enough to buy your investment.

[CincyDem]

14. Is it really a dying brand, or is it just repositioning?

He used to sell his name and his brand image was glitz and untold wealth.

Now he sell every -ism in the book to sell destabilization of a world power.

I can think of a lot of folks, both inside and outside the US, who have the money and will to invest in that brand.

[Mr.Bill]

16. Just more proof that all his other

income streams have dried up or are drying up. He's treading water at best.

[CincyDem]

17. Maybe.

But I think he’s just figured out a way to monetize all the intel he collected over his term and beyond.

No other former president, independent of party, would even dream of being the intel consultant to the world’s despots. But trump will.

Again, only IMHO, every one of these f’ing cards can be a branch of trump bank. We underestimated him coming down the escalator. Fool me once, shame on me…fool me twice, won’t get fooled again.

[oldsoftie]

18. Giving him too much credit. People ALREADY openly give him millions.

He doesnt need some "shady" stream of cash, he's getting 100s of millions legally. From stupid people, but legally.

[reACTIONary]

20. Why would anyone want to give...

... the former guy money for nothing? That doesn't make any sense.

[onenote]

31. His legion of loyal fans.

Notwithstanding the speculation -- rampant here on DU -- that there is no way that the cards actually sold out (as is being claimed ) or that, contradictorily, they sold out but were purchased by -- choose one -- billionaires, Saudis, Russians, etc. etc., there is no reason to doubt that Trumpists, who are neither billionaires or foreign actors, but are simply his deluded followers, bought 45,000 of the cards at $99 apiece. These people, by the thousands, spend absurd amounts on all sorts of Trump paraphernalia and on travel to Trump's rallies.

[womanofthehills]

48. Who bought the cards are probably NFT buyers & sellers

So if someone bought $1000 worth of cards - they just flipped them on OpenSea for $4000 and now have no cards but they made $3000. Only problem is price of cards went down today. Went from $700 - $900 to below $400 and now around $500. Some people made money, some lost. Trump made a lot.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/trump-nft-prices-nosedive-then-185015789.html

[Jakes Progress]

21. Most overlooked point. It's direct money from Russia for instance.

It's a lot of fun to make fun of tfg. The media had a lot of fun. Here on DU, we had a lot of fun with it. Sure he looked like an idiot.

But now russia or china or saudi arabia, or musk or who ever can dump millions in their campaign to destroy the US political system. tfg can just use these funds as he is directed by whoever pulls his strings. And we would have no way of knowing where it came from.

I say look to other republicans to begin offering untraceable things for sale.

[Warpy]

22. It needs a neverending supply of suckers

The most passionate suckers, looks like 450,000 of them to date, give him the original cash.

They're hoping to sell them for a profit to collectors who don't have any use for TFG, but they've got more money than brains and they like to collect things. Once a collector gets them, they stop moving.

What they don't tell you about NFTs is that they eventually expire. Yes, things on the net don't live forever, no matter what you've been told all these years. Once an NFT is no longer being traded, it tends to disappear when the issuing site isn't getting their cut and no longer bothers to maintain them.

https://interestingengineering.com/culture/nfts-are-mysteriously-disappearing-heres-how

And if anyone out there thinks TFG is going to maintain those NFTs for years, let alone the decades it will take for them to become valuable as grotesqueries, I've got an oceanfront house in NM to sell you, you don't have to see it, just trust me.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. No. Not 450,000, probably not even 45,000

There are only 45,000 cards.

And bad actors probably bought up a bunch of cards to launder money with, maybe even through tRump. One person might have bought 40,000 of them. tRump might have bought some with funds from the first sales and then given those cards to pay off debts.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. tRump can pay Russia, but not lawyers this way

For it to get to American lawyers, the money has to be converted to US Dollars, which from then on are traceable and taxable (yeah, I know, "taxes" ).

But if it is to pay Putin for loans and electioneering, it is untraceable. It can stay in block chain funds.

[calimary]

37. Sounds like something as slippery as he's been.

Start thinking of the most outlandish get-rich-quick schemes, that could work if you had a big enough reputation, and he's probably done it already or planning it now.

As my mom used to say, "he's got more nerve than the guy who ate the first oyster."

Not everybody thinks, schemes, or connives like he does. I think that's why he's yet to be caught. The rest of us just aren't wired that way.

[onenote]

30. Not exactly.

Many of the posts about the Trump cards are speculative when it comes to who is buying them and how the purchase price is distributed.

For example, we don't know how much of the initial purchase price goes to Trump and how much goes to the entity that is issuing the cards pursuant to a licensing agreement with Trump. That entity, NFT INT LLC, is -- according to the website on which the cards were offered, is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Digital LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.

Moreover, the 10% fee on resale of the cards goes to the issuer of the cards, not to Trump -- again, we don't know the details of the licensing agreement.

Finally, it has been suggested that the purchase of the cards is handled exclusively through untraceable crypto transactions. In fact, the cards were available for purchase with a credit card and either via credit card or as a crypto transaction (WETH). A crypto wallet is needed to store the card.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

35. A great way to launder money

[ancianita]

55. It could be as long as none of the crypto currency turns into US dollars. Then its traceable.

This could be part of a Russian driven system to regain its wealth, with Trump helping.
At some point, investigators will find out if this is Trump helping anyone sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act.

[Qutzupalotl]

38. I don't get why anyone would want to give him money now that he's

a) out of power, b) facing multiple indictments, and c) already losing the nomination by double digits.

[pnwmom]

42. They might want something he stills has: one of those missing govt. documents. nt

[Chakaconcarne]

52. I think he's jockeying to me the middle man for foreign $$ coming into US politics

[pnwmom]

41. It would be a way for him to off-load the remaining classified documents

since he can't hold onto them now anyway.

[ancianita]

56. There is a way to investigate it, though, if and when any of the crypto turns into US dollars.

Until then, the only way Trump can gain is in political points with dark money launderers, say Putin. Who is hell bent on circumventing the Magnitsky Act and other ongoing US sanctions in order to regain his wealth.

At this point Trump's probably thinking 'what have I got to lose' in participating in this grift that he has probably had little hand in developing or putting in place.

[dchill]

60. Surely more than meets the eye.