10/05/2024 Donald Trump dines with NFT mega-collectors during break from New York hush-money trial

Between days of testimony by Stormy Daniels, the adult-film star who claims she had sex with Trump in 2006, the former president is meeting NFT collectors at Mar-a-Lago

In 2019, then-president Donald Trump hosted a meal at the White House for members of the Clemson Tigers American-football team featuring items from the fast-food chains Domino’s, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian, via Flickr

In 2019, then-president Donald Trump hosted a meal at the White House for members of the Clemson Tigers American-football team featuring items from the fast-food chains Domino’s, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger KingOfficial White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian,via Flickr

The Manhattanhush-money trialof the former US president Donald Trump is in recess on Wednesdays, providing the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 US general election with a valuable window for campaigning. Today (8 May), Trump is using that window to have dinner with buyers of his NFTs (non-fungible tokens) at his Florida club and residence, Mar-a-Lago.

Mint Blockchain secures $1.35m grant from Optimism to boost NFT innovations
Ubisoft Reveals Release Date for ‘Champions Tactics’ NFT Game
Epik Prime Partners With Gameloft for Brands to Launch Exclusive, In-Game NFT Tournament

The dinner, first reported byAxios, is a perk for major buyers of Trump’s so-called “MugShot Edition NFT”, a series of “digital trading cards” offered at $99 apiece, some of which feature images based on the mug shottakenof Trump when he was arrested in Georgia in August 2023 on racketeering charges. (Other NFTs in the series, designed by the illustrator Clark Mitchell, feature Trump in place of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, Trump as a cyborg and Trump as a steampunk superhero.)

Supporters who bought at least 47 editions of the NFTs are invited to tonight’s dinner with Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, and will receive a piece of the suit he was wearing when the mugshot was taken. Supporters who bought 100 of the MugShot NFTs will receive additional perks including pieces of the suitandthe tie Trump wore in the mugshot, seating at a VIP table during the dinner and a cocktail reception with Trump before the event.

The company that created the MugShot NFTs is not affiliated with Trump’s campaign, although the former president did recorda videopromoting the NFTs and the limited-edition physical cards featuring fragments of his suit—”it was a great suit, believe me, a really good suit”. According to Trump’s most recent financial disclosures, he made between $100,000 and $1m from NFTs in 2022. Trump’s campaign has offered plenty ofphysical productsof its own monetising the famous photograph.

After Wednesday night’s dinner for mega-collectors of Trump NFTs, the former president will be back in court in Manhattan on Thursday morning, when his lawyers will resume their cross-examination of the adult-film star Stormy Daniels, the star witness in the hush-money case brought against Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg Jr. The case revolves around the reimbursement of hush-money payments to Daniels made by Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to keep her from telling the story of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 (which he denies ever took place).

Melania Trump, the former president’s wife, has been far more active than her husband in the NFT space, releasing several series of digital collectibles in recent years commemorating everything from the1969 Apollo 11 moon landing,US monumentslike Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty to “important moments” in US history,her own eyesandChristmas.

Arts

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/05/08/donald-trump-dining-with-nft-mega-collectors-during-break-from-new-york-hush-money-trial

Interesting NFTs
CryptoPunk #7252
The CryptoPunks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters. No two are exactly alike, and each one of them can be officially owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain. Originally, they could be claimed for free by anybody with an Ethereum wallet, but all 10,000 were quickly claimed. Now they must be purchased from someone via the marketplace that's also embedded in the blockchain.
CryptoKitties
Good day! I'm Kitty #405957. I've never told anyone this, but I once frolicked with a dog. It wasn't heavily publicized, but I once had a brief relationship with Stimpy. We're so fur-tunate to have found each other!
Fuku-Shiva
The term “Fuku” refers to fortune or good luck. “Shiva” refers to the Hindu deity who represents strongly polar qualities, both severe and delicate. On a beach inspired by adventures on Phi Phi island in Thailand, three youths cavort. Two are representational figures and the third is psychologically rendered. A dynamic relationship ensues between the triad; a reciprocity of active and passive states. The boy on the right engages in maneuvers of evasion, defense, and is dressed in a speedo which reiterates the colors and symbolism of the caution tape on the left and upper right frame of the composition. In concurrent reaction the psychedelic figure shoots out a rocket powered paper airplane. The nude boy seated in the froth and sand approaches in passive repose, and is met with active attention but equal physical reserve by the psychedelic being. Perhaps the most naked figure is also the least representational. Looming large, dynamic, and active, it engages its companions playfully. Various symbols interject into the otherwise naturalistic scene, most notably a beach ball and two contaminated barrels nested in the sand. The upright barrel reads “FukuShima” in Kanji. The barrel laying down reads “Dharma”. To the left the scene is bounded by caution tape, reiterating the danger of the nuclear waste while also hosting alien archetypes, whose presence, as is the nature of these entities, runs up and just behind the consciousness of the psychedelic figure’s eggshell-like skull.
Nirvana No.1
Nirvana No.1 Auction Ends with Lucky 07-07-2021 Good Luck
Alien
There are infinite worlds in the Universe with infinite sentient beings inhabiting them. Master autonomously updates once a day at 12am with one of 366 original artworks, showcasing some of the rarest beings, their cities, transport, technology and nature.