“He’s laughing at them”: Trump turns the joke on MAGA with tacky new scam

Donald Trump is not one thing, he is many things. For his followers, Trump is a symbol more than he is a man. This is a defining feature of fascism and other types of fake populist and authoritarian movements organized around a “strong man” leader and charismatic personality. In his role as a type of symbol and empty signifier upon which many different types of meanings can be assigned, Trump is an aspiring dictator modeled on some bastardized combination of Hitler and Putin and other criminal dictators. Trump is also a master propagandist, a white supremacist, cruel and violent, a nativist and bigot, a misogynist who has been credibly accused of rape and sexual assault by dozens of women, and an obvious criminal and felon who faces hundreds of years in prison and is, apparently, profoundly mentally unwell.

In addition to the above, Trump is now claiming that he is some type of Chosen One favored by God and Jesus to be the next president of the United States. Public opinion polls and other research and evidence (including direct statements) show that believers in White Christianity do see in Trump a type of messianic or prophetic figure who is a tool to do “the work of god” (turning America into a Christofascist Theocracy and 21st-century apartheid state).  

The ex-president has now taken on an additional identity.

Trump is selling a new version of his digital trading cards (“The MugShot Edition”) that include pieces of the suit he wore when he was arrested at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia for crimes related to his alleged attempt to interfere with and nullify the 2020 Election results as part of the larger Jan. 6 coup plot. A piece of Trump’s suit will cost the buyer approximately $4,700.

Quite predictably, the mainstream news media and many other centrist and liberal observers will, for the most part, quickly dismiss or mock Trump’s “MugShot Edition” digital trading cards as more evidence that the MAGA people are “rubes.” These detractors, even after seven years of experience, still refuse to understand Trump’s fascist appeal, if not genius control, over his followers – and the agency and power of choice that Trump’s many millions of MAGA followers possess.

Trump’s complex simplicity confounds the American mainstream news media and political class with their obsessive (and now obsolescent) commitment to “traditional candidates” and “normal politics” where the issues and reasonable, informed voters who want compromise and consensus are imagined as deciding the outcome of elections. To the degree that was ever true in American politics, it is certainly much less true in the Trumpocene and this time of national emergency and ascendant neofascism.

Ultimately, Trump’s so-called memorabilia, and what it symbolizes and channels, is so much more dangerous and important than what self-comforting acts of liberal schadenfreude and smug superiority suggest. Trump is tied with or leading President Biden in the early 2024 election polls.

In an attempt to make better sense of Trump’s new digital trading cards and how they fit into the larger MAGA neofascist propaganda machine and cult of personality, I asked a range of experts for their insights and observations:

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.”

Though long-suspected, Donald Trump is now officially showing full-blown signs of someone with delusions of grandeur. Enter his newest incarnation, the divine Saint Donald of Queens.

Inspired and spurred heavenward by the unwavering devotion of his followers and partners in delusion, Trump is quickly moving through his blasphemous journey toward canonization. It’s really not too much of a stretch to imagine Trump declaring himself a living saint, living his best-monetized life on his bespoke martyrdom path. Though still alive, Trump not only invites us to venerate his relics – broadly defined as anything that has been in contact with a saint. And he has taken the novel step of selling tiny swatches of his “mugshot suit” to his faithful.

We are all watching Trump and his followers slowly but steadily sink into his fantasy world. Trump is comfortable taking his delusions of grandeur to this new level – something I’d only ever seen before in a psychiatric hospital. He exemplifies what neurologist and psychoanalyst Ernest Jones called the “God complex,” the unwavering belief in one’s own divinity. The profane delusion at the center of Trump’s personal narrative is that he is a savior. He’s not. He just plays one on TV.

Cheri Jacobus is a former media spokesperson at the Republican National Committee and founder and president of the political consulting and PR firm Capitol Strategies PR.

The utter crass ridiculousness of indicted criminal Donald Trump selling off dirty swatches of the suit he wore for his arrest and mug shot is the point.

The faux billionaire bilking his MAGA cult members out of their rent money to pay his bills is in line with Trump’s lifelong habit of blatant cons and scams for which he routinely pays little, if any, price. There are many, many ways in which Trump can artfully scam these idiots out of their cash. So why go for the most disgusting, embarrassing, bottom-of-the-barrel tactic he and his band of low life “advisors” could devise? 

Trump is not doing this to make any sort of point with his supporters. In fact, scamming them in a manner that is the polar opposite of “artfully” is the goal. While partially for sport, it is also strategic. He’s laughing at them, while showing the rest of us just how strong the vise-like grip is that he has on his base. He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters — remember? He is thumbing his nose at justice, democracy and the rule of law.  He knows all he needs is just one MAGA juror secretly and lovingly fondling the piece of Trump’s mug shot suit in his or her pocket and he’s back in power — just as Vladimir Putin planned.

And make no mistake about it, Putin now has the GOP House and speaker he wants and needs to clear the way to take Ukraine. Matt Gaetz played his part to get rid of McCarthy, whom Putin does not trust since the former speaker can’t shake that audio recording from 2016 where he is heard saying he thinks Putin pays Trump. It’s all falling into place for Trump and Putin.

Marcel Danesi is Professor Emeritus of linguistic anthropology and semiotics at the University of Toronto. His new book is “Politics, Lies and Conspiracy Theories: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective.”

Trump’s sale of trading cards was a completely predictable event, given that he is a wily self-promoting marketer. He understands the value of trading cards in American traditions, which bear sentimental and nostalgic value, and thus fit in with his overall MAGA ploy. The tactic, moreover, is to allow his followers to literally carry the image of their leader with them everywhere. By putting his mug shot on the cards, Trump knows that he is imprinting into them the symbolism of defiance, conveyed by his angry insolent face, which he knows will further incite his followers, who will see him as a rebellious leader, a prisoner of the deep state, who is in exile waiting to be voted back into power.

The cards are just another example of the master showmanship in Trump. His performances at rallies are truly those of a circus showman. Trump actually compared himself to P.T. Barnum, during an appearance in January of 2016 on “Meet the Press.” The interviewer, Chuck Todd, asked Trump to choose, from among the pejorative names he was being called at the time, the one he would consider to actually be a compliment. He answered, “P. T. Barnum,” adding “We need P.T. Barnum, a little bit, because we have to build up the image of our country.” It should come as little surprise that Barnum also put out cards to promote himself and his circus. So, while we may condemn his tactics as ridiculous, Trump, like Barnum, knows that they are psychologically effective. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it in 1860: “Men had rather be deceived than not; witness the secure road to riches of Barnum and the quacks.”

David L. Altheide is the Regents’ Professor Emeritus on the faculty of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University and author of the new book “Gonzo Governance: The Media Logic of Donald Trump.”

Donald Trump enters the Fascist Hall of Fame (see Hitler, Mussolini) with digital trading cards that reveal a lot about his brand, persona, view of democracy and major social institutions.

The brand and persona are related and could be called “whatever” because he has no real persona, a head attached to anything, anybody, everything, and therefore, nothing really. It is political pornography. He is a floating meme that can be personalized for any follower’s identity or fantasy. This is consistent with his narrative to paying supporters targeted for symbolic affirmation: There are cards with his mugshot and “never surrender” epithet—even though he has already surrendered. The subtext is indictments are fakes, and the law is a fraud. Even the cards are fantasy. One card pretends to include a piece of his suit worn for the surrendered image that can be touched, like an infant’s “Pat the Bunny” book. So cute!

Collectively, the brand affirms white dominance, and rebukes authority and major social institutions, implying strong dictatorial Gonzo Governance. There’s one card as a sheriff with a white hat. Another image floats over the Constitution, and in one he sits on the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, symbolically debasing President Lincoln and his legacy about freeing slaves and uniting the country. The collection is a vanilla rendering of the Village People’s YMCA sans diversity.

Steven Hassan is one of the world’s leading experts on cults and other dangerous organizations, as well as how to deprogram people who have succumbed to “mind control.” Hassan was once a senior member of the Unification Church, better known as the “Moonies.” He is now the founder and director of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.

When I saw the trading cards the first thought I had was how happy Putin must be that Trump is ridiculing the presidency and the authority of the United States.

I also thought of Mark Burnett, who was in charge of the media and ran “The Apprentice” for 10 years to bolster Trump’s identity as a great businessman. Of course, there are elements of professional wrestling here as well where everyone knows it’s fake but the audience still acts like it is real. In all, Trump’s trading cards and those images of him are part of a larger attack on rationality, normalcy and critical thinking.

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Regarding selling pieces of Trump’s suit, all I can say is, “I can give you a very good deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.” There are so many True Believers who are operating under the principle that it’s too big a lie so it must be true. It’s so sad to know that people will actually believe that Trump is a great leader or part of a good history.

In the end, I think somebody approached Trump and said, Hey I got an idea to make some money and it’ll help keep you in people’s minds. We will give you 50% or whatever cut of whatever gets sold. Trump just loves to have his name and his face everywhere and to have people value it so it feeds his enormous malignant narcissistic ego.

Michael D’Antonio is the author of the biography, “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success.”

I imagine that in offering bits of his clothing Trump wasn’t immediately tuned in to the idea that he was marketing a relic in the vein of those seen on display in Catholic Churches across Europe. My guess is that he thought about baseball teams that sell seats that are being replaced or football players who sell game-worn shirts.

Days later Trump has surely been informed of the religious connotations and since the bits and pieces are still on offer, he must like the comparison to the bones or hair of saints. Certainly, Trump would appreciate anything that elevates him in status in any way.

One odd thing about this is his evangelical supporters reject the veneration of relics. They consider Catholic reverence for these objects a kind of idolatry and certainly unbiblical. However, I doubt that evangelicals who support Trump would recognize the similarities or, if they do, care much. Instead, they might have a quasi-nearer-my-Trump-to-thee feeling as they plunk down their cash.

Rich Logis is a former right-wing pundit and high-ranking Trump supporter. Logis is the founder of Perfect Our Union, an organization that is dedicated to healing political traumatization; building diverse, pro-democracy alliances; and perfecting our Union.

His manufactured, carefully cultivated mythology is all Trump has left. In ways that are closer to literal, than figurative, re-election is a life-or-death last stand for the former president: he knows winning back the White House is his best (perhaps his only) ploy to avoid dying in prison.

The American tragedy of the Trump epoch is ensconced amongst some of our nation’s most egregious mistakes. Perhaps the most tragic of all is the trauma MAGA has wrought across every inch of America; this trauma is best observed amongst the true believers of MAGA—of which I once was and am now working to help others leave MAGA. Even though MAGA supporters are a minority of the electorate, they still number in the millions.

Trump and the GOP have kept MAGA voters in yearslong states of panic and desperation; I was in such a state for several years. The Trump faithful continue to be exploited, including financially: so many who lament about inflation spend their hard-earned money on a false prophet who will lead them astray for as long as they are willing. That they would purchase physical keepsakes worn by Trump confirms how subsumed their identity is by MAGA. 

I don’t presume to think my solutions to persuade others to leave MAGA are the only effective ones; if there is any chance to permanently break the bond, however, I implore those with MAGA relatives and friends: Don’t give up on them.