Digital trading cards that Donald Trump is selling for $99 feature a gleaming Trump Tower and gold bars – but the company running the promotional gambit sweepstakes lists an address with a tiny roadside shack in upstate New York.
Trump amped up his promotional machinery this week to hype a 'MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT,' which turned out to be a scheme to sell superhero digital trading cards bearing his likeness – with the $99 fee going to himself, and not his one-month-old campaign to retake the White House.
Trump's 'limited edition' trading cards are already sold out, according to the website he touted on Truth Social. But even visitors who missed the boat on getting a digital NFT of Trump decked out as a superhero, an outlaw, a shades-wearing astronaut, or corporate titan surrounded by gold bars get the chance to enter the contest.
Like other companies or entities that want to run a sweepstakes – a 'game of chance' – Trump is required under federal and state laws to let people enter for free by providing an alternate method of entry, and is required to disclose the winners.
Former President Donald Trump sold digital trading cards for $99, in an offering that also brought an entry into a sweepstakes. The company administering the sweepstakes has an address that appears to be a small shack in Newark, New York
The fine print on a 'no purchase necessary' guarantee in Trump's contest lists a mailing address in Newark, New York, a small town between Syracuse and Buffalo. There, a letter containing a self-addressed, stamped envelope can get earn anyone a single entry (except in Vermont, where you don't have to provide postage).
The facility handling this operation, located by DailyMail.com on Google maps after it was flagged online by Geoff Embler of Protean Public Affairs, is a tiny white shack on the side of the road, where a warm weather image shows green grass sprouting amid the asphalt.
It is next door to a Great Wall Buffet and a Bee-Tee's Diner.
That property is owned by National Sweepstakes Company, LLC, which is running the sweepstakes.
One Trump NFT features Trump Tower in the background
Above is an image of the new Trump digital collectible card, which cost $99
Another has Trump surrounded by gold bars bearing his name. But the building of the company administering the sweepstakes is a shack in upstate New York
Two versions of Trump's trading cards. Purchases also include an email to enter a sweepstakes
Anyone can enter the sweepstakes, even without buying a digital card. The cards are sold out
The building stands in contrast to the gleaming Trump Tower featured in one of Trump's digital cards
An entity called CIC Digital LLC appears to have been created for the NFT sale
The company has also run sweepstakes for some nationally identifiable clients.
The fine print in Trump's digital trading card deal also lists the 'sponsor' as another company, NFT INT, LLC. The sponsor is registered as an LLC incorporated in Delaware.
A disclaimer, which founds for an arms-length operation, states that, 'Sponsor is not owned, managed, or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Digital LLC, or any of their respective principals or affiliates. Sponsor uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness, and image under license from CIC Digital LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.'
That suggests that the Trump entity created for the NFT project is CIC Digital LLC, which is also incorporated in Delaware.
NFTs are non-fungible tokens, digital creations that can be sold and traded.
NFT INT, LLC lists an address in Park City, Utah, that appears to be appears to be located in a strip mall located off I-80. It appears to be either in or adjacent to a UPS store, with other neighbors including a vapor company, an Asian bistro, and a mattress store.
DailyMail.com has reached out to both LLCs for comment.
Trump had hyped the digital cards online. 'They will be gone, I believe, very quickly!' he wrote on Truth Social – in a prediction that proved accurate.
The terms of the sweepstakes, which buyers enter into when they purchase a card even though they also could enter for free, reveal that the total prizes are worth $54,695. Some prizes, like a 30-minute meet-and-greet with Trump as part of a 200-person group, are listed as being valued at between '$0/Priceless.'
Trump had hyped the event by proclaiming a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!' Wednesday.
'My official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection is here!' Trump wrote Thursday. 'These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my Life & Career! Collect all of your favorite Trump Digital Trading Cards, very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting.'
At least one prominent figure in Trump world is rejecting the ploy.
'I can't do this anymore,' said former Chief White House strategist Steve Bannon. 'He's one of the greatest presidents in history, but I gotta tell you: whoever – what business partner and anybody on the comms team and anybody at Mar-a-Lago – and I love the folks down there – but we're at war. They oughta be fired today.'
Bannon teed off on Right Side Broadcasting Network after Trump's big reveal. He was sentenced in October to four months in prison following his conviction on contempt of Congress charges.
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