President Donald Trump’s fundraising committee is selling $40 signed mugs Monday in an effort to reach what he called his “FIRST EVER Presidential Fundraising Goal,” marking the latest merchandise offering from Trump—who has faced hundreds of millions in legal fees and court judgments—and one of the first since he’s taken office.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an ... [+]
The offering, which was marketed via email, is a white mug featuring the shadow of Trump holding his fist up, the text “make America great again” and the president’s autograph above the image of him.
The contributions go to the Trump National Committee, a joint fundraising committee that splits the money between the Republican National Committee and Never Surrender, his leadership PAC—meaning some of the money is able to be used on personal expenses, like legal fees.
The website, operated by WinRed, a fundraising platform for conservative and center-right groups, does not detail what Trump’s fundraising goal is or how close to reaching it he is but encourages people to donate between $40 and $1,000, or more.
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The signed mugs join a number of items Trump has sold to benefit his personal businesses, including $1,250 Trump-branded guitars, NFT trading cards, watches, silver coins, Bibles, sneakers, cologne and more. He also sold Trump cards for $99 that included a piece of the suit he wore in his Fulton County, Georgia, mugshot.
$675,000,000. That’s about how much Trump owes in legal fees and court judgments, according to Forbes’ records. Most of the money—about $492 million—is from civil fraud judgments against Trump in New York, and another $96.1 million is from writer E. Jean Carroll’s cases against Trump for defamation and sexual abuse. Trump, who has long cast the lawsuits against him as politically motivated, is appealing many of the judgments.
Trump regularly promoted his merchandise through his campaign and after his win as he faces hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees, with proceeds either flowing directly to him or to one of his political committees. The items he, his political committees and his business partners have sold range from lower, more affordable prices like the $40 mugs to watches made of 18 Carat gold and decorated with diamonds that sold for up to $100,000. It’s not totally clear how much Trump has made from selling his merchandise, but CBS News reported he made about $7.2 million from NFT licensing fees and the Los Angeles Times reported the sales of his Bibles—made with singer Lee Greenwood—made him about $300,000. Forbes reported it is unusual for proceeds from presidential and inaugural merchandise to be directed to a leadership PAC the way that Trump has been directing it, which allows for fewer restrictions on how the money is spent.
On Sunday, Trump’s team was selling “Official Trump Lifetime Achievement Award” cards to anyone who donated $35 or more. The cards depict Trump in a saluting position, are customized with one’s name and read “Lifetime Achievement Award for Patriotism.”
Trump is also selling a meme coin, $TRUMP, which he announced on Jan. 17 and was for sale on the Solana blockchain network. Meme coins are also considered highly volatile and they typically do not hold underlying value like stocks. The coin soared in value from about $10 to $70 in the first couple of days they were available, but it fell sharply after that and was trading for about $36.94 on Monday, according to CoinMarketCap.
We estimate Trump has a net worth of $5.6 billion, making him the 589th wealthiest person in the world.
Where Trump’s leadership PAC, Never Surrender, is putting its cut of Trump’s money. Information on how the PAC has recently been spending its 20% of funds the website says it received on this merchandise, and other inaugural merchandise, will not be publicly available until the end of the month.
Trump Breaks Tradition By Redirecting Inaugural Swag Funds To His PAC (Forbes)
Trump’s Latest Merchandise Sale: $10,000 Autographed Guitars (Forbes)
Donald Trump Promotes $199 Cologne, New ‘Trump Watches’ In Latest Merchandise Push (Forbes)
Donald Trump Did Not Get Tens Of Billions Of Dollars Richer From $TRUMP Meme Coin—Here’s Why (Forbes)