Days after former US President Donald Trump dropped his NFT collection, more and more bizarre details are coming up. The Donald Trump NFT trading cards sold out in less than a day, raking in over $4.5 million. However, according to NFT Twitter sleuths, the project has dubious origins. Apparently, the team behind the NFT collection already has another failed project to their name. It gets worse—the artwork seems to be stolen.
Here’s a detailed look at what possibly went behind Trump’s trading card collection:
Who created the Trump NFTs?
According to the Collect Trump Cards website, NFT INT, LLC created the NFTs. However, the company is “not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump.” And here’s the thing, no one really knows who actually owns this company.
Meanwhile, a Discord Security Auditor, who goes by the name “Plum” on Twitter, alleged that Dylan and Bill Zanker, who created Sylvester Stallone’s PlanetSly NFT collection, are behind the Trump NFTs. They claimed that Dylan had contacted them in January 2022 for Discord security services for the PlanetSly project. However, the duo eventually did not take up Plum’s services. The project in itself failed to fully launch, with the last Tweet from them being in June.
“When the Trump NFT launched, it was immediately apparent that it was done by the same people behind the Stallone project,” Plum tweeted. “The art looked very similar, the websites were nearly identical (even down to the FAQ wording).”
Besides, “both the Trump site and the Stallone one both have their “Sponsors” listed at addresses in Park City, Utah – which is where Bill Zanker lives. They aren’t ‘real’ places, however, they’re UPS Store PO Boxes.”
The artist—Clark Mitchell, was also allegedly the same. So was the email used by both Trump NFT and PlanetSly. And here’s where things get interesting—Plum alleged that Trump and Bill Zanker are partners, having even co-written a 2009 book and hosted a charity together. But, soon after Trump launched his collection, the project teams allegedly “hid, changed, or scrubbed” their social media profiles. According to Plum, these findings raise rugpull concerns.
Trump accused of using copyrighted images
Since Trump launched his NFT collection, many have come forward to accuse him of using copyrighted images for his collection. For example, Twitter user SkeeterBombay pointed out that the Trump golf NFT featured a Reuters photo.
“The Trump golf NFT is a slimed-down and photoshopped-up take from a David Moir/Reuters file photo from 2011, when Trump was playing at his Scotland club,” they tweeted. “Even the folds in his pants are the same, lolz!” They also questioned whether Trump had sought Reuter’s permission for using the photo.
Meanwhile, the crypto news account WhaleChart noted that Trump “borrowed images from across the internet”. Seemingly, some of these also included images of clothing brands from Amazon and Walmart. Ironically, some even allegedly featured the Shutterstock and Adobe logos. Similarly, The Young Turks journalist, Matthew Sheffield showed that Trump’s NFT image of himself as a cowboy was a “slightly altered” Amazon image.
Many Twitter users alleged that this was a clear case of copyright infringement. Several others also called the Trump NFT collection a scam. It remains to be seen if any of the image owners will take action against the former US president.
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