Student-led group sells NFTs of Trump tweets for charity

A group of teens are selling nonfungible tokens, known as NFTs, for charity as a way for critics of former President Trump to get the last laugh on his thousands of tweets. 

“A lot of them are actually really funny. And not funny in that we’re laughing with them, it’s more like we’re laughing at him,” said Jackie Ni, the 18-year-old behind the company Strategic Meme Group, which is selling the NFTs. 

“And his tweets have also been historically known to be hateful and inciting violence. So we tried to do something good with his tweets,” Ni added. 

The NFTs are being sold on Strategic Meme Group’s “Drumpfs” website. The name comes from a meme “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver started in 2016 during Trump’s first presidential campaign.

The tweets are divided into different categories, including “infamous,” “deleted,” and “flagged” posts. They’re also divided chronologically, dating back from before Trump was elected president through his last post on Jan. 8 before he was permanently banned from the platform.

Trump’s last post, declaring that he “will not be going to the Inauguration,” is among a group of 100 “infamous” tweets that are for sale at a higher price of 4.5 Ethereum, or about $12,232. 

All other tweets are selling for .0232 Ethereum, or about $63.28. Each NFT of the tweets also contains corresponding graphic art. 

Ni said he thought of the idea of creating the NFTs of Trump’s tweets after seeing the rise in popularity of the digital assets. For example, he pointed to the NFT of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first post on the site which sold for $2.9 million in March. 

“I was like, wait a minute, what about Trump’s tweets? They have all the qualities of the collectibles — they’re limited, they have different time periods, like pre-presidency, presidency, campaign,” Ni said. 

Since launching the initiative this week, Ni said the group has raised $6,000 in sales. 

The teens also put thought behind where to donate the funds, with specific charities chosen based on the content of Trump’s tweets. For example, a post from Trump railing against “FAKE NEWS, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” is tagged letting buyers know that funds from the purchase will be donated to the American Journalism Project. 

Some of Trump’s tweets that are harder to categorize — ranging from the more mundane to the infamous 2012 tweet where Trump weighed in on celebrity couple Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s relationship — are labeled with a note saying the money will go toward the “general fund.” 

Ni said there will be a voting system in place for people to choose charities to benefit from the general fund purchases. 

He said the group will start sending out donations to the charities when it reaches $10,000 since it’s “quite a hassle” to convert between the cryptocurrency the NFTs are purchased with and U.S. dollars. 

Strategic Meme Group is an entirely youth-led progressive company. Ni said everyone involved is either in high school or college. 

Ni is in the middle of a gap year and will be attending Columbia University in the fall. 

The latest company is an escalation of a venture Ni launched during the 2020 election called MemePac, which used novel methods of political advertising, including through memes and games that mocked Trump. The new company is a way for the teens to sell products through the political art and technology studio, Ni said.