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.

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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
The Crazy Goldcat
Yo! I'm The Crazy Goldcat. I want to live in a world where people believe that one day cats will rule this planet. I once got in a fight with a chimpanzee, and won. I hope we can be annoying friends.
Reflection
#XCOPY #GIF #screen #time #mirror
Dai ni-danme (Act II), the house of Wakasanosuke. Honzo lopping the pine-branch, from the series Newly Published Perspective Picture of the Loyal Retainers
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Dai ni-danme (Act II), the house of Wakasanosuke. Honzo lopping the pine-branch, from the series Newly Published Perspective Picture of the Loyal Retainers 1801-1804 - Japan
The Moth Catcher
In this psychologically bed-headed portrait, a creature sets in a trance; his eyes devolved and vestigal, his third eye open but hardened and in a form resembling a Sharingan. The imagery therefore expresses an awareness existing in corporeal introspection. The creature’s mind sprouts, on the left side, an emerging face, grinning. To the right side of the head, red tentacles and fingers intertwine–a collaboration of invertebrate and vertebrate consciousness cooperatively handling paint brushes of the sort used to build an oil painting. The neck and throat bristle with random thorns, as from a rose or the upper portions of a beak sprouting from its flesh. The neck itself disassociates into layers of membranous material, terminating upon an abstracted base of convoluted forms composing its body. The nose is virtually non existent, more a sinus reiterative of the shape of the third eye. Set against the exposed teeth peering out of thick, meaty cheeks, a skeleton-like impression results. That impression sets behind a visceral set of lips and tongue, which is the creature’s prime seat of awareness. Sensual, organic, the tongue organ hangs, meaty, and with consciousness of a sea cucumber. It illuminates at the tip, drawing the attraction of a nearby moth–with mystery of purpose.
CryptoPunk #7804
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.