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2024 Election

Trump Accused of Stealing Copyrighted Images for His Dumb Trading Cards

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Former President Donald Trump is catching heat in connection with those silly NFT digital cards released last week that far too many people were stupid enough to spend $99 on. Anyone with a brain in their head would know that the former president does not, in any way, resemble the image presented on the cards.

And now, according to The Independent, some are accusing him of using copyrighted images for the cards. Trump wants to be taken seriously as a 2024 presidential contender and the cards weirdly portray him as a superhero, a cowboy, and an astronaut. They were his so-called “major announcement,” and he’s been widely mocked for this arguably poor decision.

And apparently, there are plenty of people stupid enough to shell out the exorbitant price because all 45,000 images sold out by Friday afternoon according to the promotional site responsible for this embarrassment.

The Independent has this to say about this nonsense:

“But — while the former president might enjoy a short-term boost to his bank balance — in the long term, he may find the venture leaves him out of pocket.”

Some sharp-eyed social media users have pointed out on Twitter that several of the images look familiar. They note some of the designs appear to be little more than Trump’s head edited onto images on websites for small businesses that sell clothing. Some also appear to be stock images or even outfits sold by Amazon and Walmart.

Matthew Sheffield, who writes for The Young Turks, noted on Twitter that Trump’s cowboy NFT appeared to be a doctored image from Amazon that’s offering a “Scully Men’s Duster,” jacket, per The Independent. He was responding to this from SkeeterBombay:

“The Trump golf NFT is a slimmed-down and photoshopped-up take from a David Moir/Reuters file photo from 2011, when Trump was playing at his Scotland club,” the person tweeted.

“Even the folds in his pants are the same, lolz! Did Reuters greenlight this? Yikes!”

Someone else on Twitter wondered if Trump obtained permission from Reuters to use a golf photo that one of its photographers had used of the former president hitting a few links.

And cryptocurrency account WhaleChart commented on another one of the digital cards, where Trump is made to look like a fighter pilot. The image still includes the watermark of a Shutterstock logo.

Numerous Twitter users suggested Trump might face legal action for copyright infringement in regard to the digital cards.

“Using another company’s photos and unpaid stock images to create an image for profit is considered copyright infringement,” noted one person. “We’ll see if the owners of the images will pursue Trump. He never pays for his mistakes.”

One person recognized this for the alleged scam it is.

“NFTs are digital files that must be ORIGINAL art to create value. Trump NFT copied existing art and photos for his #MajorAnnouncement Trading Card Grift,” they tweeted.

“This is a copyright infringement and illegal. With Trump it’s always a scam.”

That last tweet is very true. Trump may be the biggest scam artist this country has ever seen. Who knows? He has oodles of supporters who still hang on his every word. He’s tricked lots of people. And unless Attorney General Merrick Garland acts, he still may get away with it.

Megan Hamilton
meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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