Digital trading card gambit marks disastrous start to Trump’s presidential campaign 

It was billed by the 45th president as a “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT,” complete with ALL-CAPS to help build the anticipation.

Would Donald Trump, the first and only declared candidate in the 2024 race for the White House, be announcing his running mate? Or perhaps he’d release a schedule of campaign rally events that have been noticeably absent since Trump’s Nov. 16 announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

It’s almost unheard of for a major candidate announcing a run for the presidency not to follow up with a big rally to build momentum and buzz. After his 2015 launch announcement in New York, Trump was on an Iowa stage just 10 hours later.

But oddly, the guy who seemingly is happiest and most comfortable at his own rallies, decided to stay out of public. And most curiously but perhaps tellingly, Trump isn’t following his 2016 playbook of doing interviews anywhere and everywhere.

In the first 30 days of his campaign from mid-June until mid-July 2015, the former “The Apprentice” star sat down for one-on-one interviews on networks he would undoubtedly avoid now: NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” CNN’s “State of the Union,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and two extensive interviews with the New York Times.

There was no Q&A Trump would turn down. And his poll numbers exploded after his campaign was largely dismissed the moment he came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower on June 16 of that year.

Instead, Trump’s first 30 days have included two unforced errors that were (to be generous) head-scratchers.

The first occurred earlier this month when Trump invited Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, to Mar-a-Lago for dinner and Ye brought along noted Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Even giving Trump the benefit of the doubt about not knowing who Fuentes is, the Ye invitation had no upside given the former rapper’s recent antisemitic comments.

The second came this week via the aforementioned “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” Trump hyped on his social media platform.

“MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT! My official Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection is here!” he posted on Truth Social on Thursday. “These limited edition cards feature amazing ART of my Life & Career!”

“Collect all of your favorite Trump Digital Trading Cards, very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting,” he continued. “Only $99 each! Would make a great Christmas gift. Don’t Wait. They will be gone, I believe, very quickly!”

Even staunch Trump allies don’t know what to make of this.

“I can’t do this anymore,” former chief strategist Stephen Bannon said on his “War Room” program after the announcement. “He’s one of the best presidents in history. I gotta tell you. Whoever, what business partner and anybody on the comms team and anybody at Mar-a-Lago, and I love the folks down there, but we’re at war. They oughta be fired today.”

Sebastian Gorka, who served as deputy assistant to Trump in 2017, joined Bannon in his sentiment.

“Whoever wrote that, that pitch, should be fired,” Gorka said. “I don’t want them making the presidential napkins for Mar-a-Lago … anybody who came up with that. If you want to do this kind of stuff, have a peon do it. Get somebody who’s recognized in the MAGA world to, you know, put their face to this thing and do it. But the president should not be involved with this.”

Bannon is correct and is among an overwhelming majority right, left and center who have railed against Trump on this.

Between the Ye dinner, Trump attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on the day a hurricane was hitting his state and the trading card fiasco (despite Trump making millions on them) and you have the first month of a campaign with zero positive news.

Then there are the polls, which are already getting ugly for Trump.

A USA Today-Suffolk University poll found that less than one-third (31 percent) of GOP and GOP-leaning voters want to see Trump run for reelection. The same poll found DeSantis topping Trump by 23 points, 56 percent to 33 percent. President Biden beats Trump by 7 points in USA Today-Suffolk, but DeSantis tops Biden.

A Wall Street Journal poll this week revealed similar challenges for the former president, as DeSantis tops Trump 52 percent to 38 percent among likely GOP primary voters. DeSantis’s favorability among Republicans is at 86 percent in the same poll, while Trump has dropped to 74 percent.

Given his improbable win in 2016, Trump can never be counted out. His policies on border security, immigration, crime, trade and energy independence remain popular with a majority of voters, even as the messenger becomes less popular.  

But this ain’t 2016 anymore.

That Trump, the fearless insurgent candidate who traveled the country and agreed to any interview he was asked to do, isn’t the Trump we’re seeing now. Not even close. 

There are still more than 400 days until the Iowa caucuses kick off voting in the primary season. But given how this campaign has begun, one can’t help but wonder whether Trump will be a favorite or a long shot.

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.