Donald Trump has made his first return to Instagram after Meta lifted his ban from the app in January, but only to promote the second edition of his digital playing cards.
The former US President had been banned by Meta on the platform following his incitement of the 6 January 2021 attack on Congress that left six dead.
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However, while Meta took swift action in banning Trump from its platform, the company referred the case to its own Oversight Board which overturned the ban, believing its open-ended nature to be a bit harsh on old Donny.
In his return to the platform, rather than slandering sitting President Joe Biden or making any comment on the state of the nation, Trump started promoting the second series of his Collect Trump Cards NFTs.
Selling for US$99 (around AU$147), the trading cards feature remarkably strange images of the former President that can be bought and sold among fellow Trump enthusiasts.
Should you have bought 46 digital trading cards, you would be in line to get a ticket to a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, while 100 trading card purchases would get you a one-of-one Trump NFT card as well as an invite to Mar-a-Lago.
At the time of writing, there are just 21 of 100 digital trading card packs available — be quick! Though, an Instagram post from Trump, claiming they have sold out, would seem to contradict his own website.
However, it is not all fun and games. The first series of Trump’s trading cards netted him around US$4.5 million (almost AU$7 million) and will have helped him raise funds to fight his criminal indictment in New York on 34 charges of falsification of business records, related to the hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels.
“I hope everyone notices, & I’m sure the Fake News won’t, that I’m leaving the price of the Trading Cards the same as last time, even though they are selling for MANY TIMES MORE (It’s called the MARKET!), & sold out almost immediately, because I want my fans & supporters to make money, & have fun doing it. I could have raised the price MUCH HIGHER, & I believe it still would have sold well, with a lot more money coming to me, but I didn’t choose to do so. I WILL BE GIVEN NO “NICE GUY” CREDIT?” wrote Trump in one of his Instagram posts.
While this was not the dramatic return that Meta or advertisers might have feared, bringing some Trump-style toxicity back to the platform, it does mark a climbdown for Meta. However, should Trump violate Instagram’s community standards, Meta’s president of global affairs and former Deputy British Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that “in the event that Mr Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”
We’ll see how long that lasts.
Lead image credit: Instagram.
