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Fortune
Fortune
Chloe Taylor

Donald Trump got back on Instagram after 2 years and the first thing he did was sell NFTs

Former U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. (Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

After the reversal of a social media ban, former President Donald Trump took to Instagram for the first time in two years on Tuesday to unveil a second collection of NFTs featuring his image.

Among Trump’s four Instagram posts on Tuesday was a video in which the former president announced: “My digital trading cards are back with a bang.”

An image of one of the NFTs he shared to Instagram showed a digital illustration of Trump in a superhero-like costume, under which he noted that he had not raised the price of his NFTs “because I want my fans and supporters to make money” from the assets, which could potentially be sold at a profit.

The site that sells the cards notes: “Trump Digital Trading Cards (NFTs) are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment vehicles.”

The digital trading cards, priced at $99 each, have already sold out, according to CollectTrumpCards.com.

“Series two features incredible artwork of me as a rockstar and also as a monster trucker,” Trump said in his Instagram video on Tuesday. “People love to collect baseball cards, but why settle for that when you can collect the greatest trading card in history?”

The new NFT series follows a preliminary collection of $99 Trump NFTs that hit the market in December.

The digital trading cards, which featured the former president in a variety of poses and costumes, sold out in one day and generated $4.5 million in sales.  

Following news of Trump’s historic indictment last month, trading of his NFTs surged by more than 400%.

Earlier this year, Instagram parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, said it was ending Trump’s suspension from its platforms.

Two years earlier, the former president’s Facebook and Instagram accounts had been indefinitely suspended following what Meta described as “his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Around the same time, Twitter also announced that it was permanently banning the former president from its platform “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Twenty-two months later, new Twitter owner Elon Musk reversed the ban on Trump’s account, although Trump has not tweeted since Jan. 8, 2021.

After being banned from Twitter and Meta’s platforms, Trump went on to launch his own social media site, Truth Social, which went live in February 2022.

The Associated Press reported last week that Trump, who owns 90% of his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, made less than $201 from the business last year—although the former reality TV star reportedly claimed the firm was worth up to $25 million.

Trump also reportedly said in a personal financial disclosure filed on Friday that he had personally earned between $100,000 and $1 million from his series of digital trading cards.

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