In creating his NFT collection, former President Trump seems to have borrowed images from across the internet, including clothing brands on Amazon and Walmart.
On Thursday, Trump began selling his first-ever collection of NFTs, dubbed the “official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection.” The former president released 45,000 of them, each individually priced at $99.
However, journalists noticed that at least some of the images for the NFTs relied on photos of clothing you can buy online. For example, an NFT showing Trump wearing a cowboy outfit seems to be based on a duster jacket from Scully Leather, which is sold on Amazon and Walmart.
Another NFT of Trump wearing a tuxedo borrows imagery of a suit sold on Men’s Warehouse. Meanwhile, a separate NFT incorporated a photo of a $49 Western Sports coat.
Journalist Matthew Sheffield added that other NFTs seem to be based on photos from stock image provider Shutterstock and a news article.
That said, many of the other Trump NFTs are merely the former president standing in the same overall pose, but with slight variations that could include holding up a fist, wearing a hat, or even gripping a basketball.
To produce art for the NFTs, the Trump organization hired a contract artist named Clark Mitchell, who’s done projects for Star Wars, Disney, Hasbro, along with other NFTs, including for sports athletes. Mitchell didn’t respond to a request for comment, so it’s unclear what process he used to create the Trump NFTs. For now, Mitchell has only tweeted: “This is def a unique day for sure,” after Trump announced the NFTs.
But we wouldn’t be surprised if Mitchell tapped the stock images to help streamline producing hundreds of individual images for the NFT collection. In many cases, the art for the NFTs looks as if Trump’s head has been Photoshopped onto a body.
Critics, including Trump supporters, have already derided the former president for pushing his NFT collection when he's announced plans to run for president again in 2024. But even so, the digital collectibles sold out quickly, according to Trump’s website. About 6% of the NFTs are also being resold on OpenSea, starting at about $180 in Ethereum.