Brother, Can You Spare $99 or More?

Donald Trump is hawking gold sneakers and perfume in a desperate attempt to raise cash in the wake of recent court judgements against him

With the recent expensive legal judgements against Donald Trump (he must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her and pay the state of New York $350 million for misrepresenting his wealth when applying for loans and paying taxes), he has hit a new low point in his personal and professional life. The Lincoln Project decided to make this video where they used AI to recreate Trump’s late father, Fred Trump, where he seems to be scolding his son for messing up the family real estate business that was initially started by Donald Trump's grandfather. (After the grandfather's death in the Spanish flu pandemic, his grandmother ran it for a few years until Fred Trump was old enough to help with the business.) Normally I would be against using AI in this manner to attack a person but Donald Trump has proven to be such an odious person (with the numerous claims of rape, his history of not paying his contractors, his racism, his siding with authoritarian dictators like Vladimir Putin, and much more) that he deserves all of the karma that's headed his way. Here's The Lincoln Project's Fred Trump AI video.

Donald Trump may be down but he's not out. Yesterday, exactly one day after that $350 million judgement in New York was announced, Donald Trump arrived at the annual Sneaker Con in Philadelphia where he unveiled his own line of Trump Sneakers, whose prices range from $199-399. Here's a photo of a typical pair.

Trump's appearance at Sneaker Con wasn't universally welcomed by the participants. Apparently he was booed off the stage when he announced Trump Shoes.

Here's my own brief review of these shoes. Personally I find the gold shoes to be completely butt-ugly. I could go to Walmart, buy a pair of cheap white sneakers along with a can of gold spray paint, and create my own pair of gold shoes that would look better at a fraction of the price. The other sneakers aren't quite as ugly but I could easily find a more stylish pair at Dick's Sporting Goods.

You can now buy Trump Sneakers online right here. (The gold sneakers are now sold out. The $99 bottles of Victory47 cologne are also sold out. There are pairs of red sneakers and white sneakers still available as of this writing along with $99 bottles of Victory47 perfume.) If you don't want to venture anywhere near that site, here's are a few screenshots of his products.

It's surreal to see an ex-president who's currently running for a second term hawking sneakers and perfume like this. But it is Donald Trump that I'm writing about, the same guy who has long branded his name on consumer products like Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, and Trump Digital Trading Cards. (By the way, Fast Company has a list of the weirdest consumer products that Trump has ever slapped his name on.) With the recent financial judgements against him (and with more still to come) expect to see more Trump consumer products in the near future.

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