Heres how this grift works, its become quite common and started with books. Once you know it you will see it all the time.
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Politician writes book = politicians pr firm hires ghost writer to write book.
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Politician says one controversial/spicy/tell all thing in book
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Politician goes on all news shows to promote book/super spicy new hot take
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Politicians PAC/dark money donor/political party/putin buys up millions of copy of said book injecting millions into campaign not subject to campaign finance laws that can be spent without regard to laws or limits because its “income”.
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This massive buy immediately puts book on best seller list while books sit in warehouse.
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Books in warehouse legitimately sold/given away at campaign events or give as " FREE" copy if you donate X amount today.
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Politician gets to be on all cable news shows, gets a massive injection of untraceable cash that isnt subject to campaign finance law, and now is a new york times best selling author. Win, win, win.
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Its just money laundering
Trumps shoes? Same as his super hero cards. Its a way to launder in untraceable money from putin, perhaps folks he sold nuclear secrets to, and god knows who else. If it doesnt seem to make sense that all of the sudden trump is selling sneakers its because it doesnt. Hes laundering dark money in full view of the public.
personally, i find the one with artwork more subtle, where they have some artist draw some low effort crap, then sell it for millions to cover up what the money was actually for.
Is this still an almost exclusively republican graft or are there now also democrats who have started doing the same thing?
Edit: since this question is apparently gathering downvotes without an answer, an explanation for why I posed this question:
As far as I know this is not a “both sides” problem, but it’s something that is being systematically done by republican politicians, not by democrat politicians. Framing it as something that is done by “politicians” paints all politicians as equally bad and deplorable, but that is simply not the case for this practice.
Now I do not consume all possible media all the time, so it’s possible that I am out of the loop in this instance and this practice is now also being done by democrats, which is why I asked the question.
I didn’t see “Republican” in the breakdown, just “politician”.
Yeah, it’s a “both sides” argument, while it actually isn’t both sides. The comment is trying to paint politicians from both sides as equally bad, while I have only read articles about republicans doing this. And they’ve been at it for years, it must have been 2019 or 2020 when I first read about the book thing.
But moral standards for democrats are slipping as well, which is why I wanted to give that poster the benefit of the doubt and I was hoping that someone could provide a source showing that (some) democrats too are now guilty of this.
I don’t think it’s all money laundering. NFTs sure, but this seems more like the MAGA hats he sold to all of his fans.
Maybe democrats should take a page out of his book and sell tangible items instead of just asking for donations.
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You can sink quite quickly quite hard. From POTUS to ordinary shoe sales person. Donald “Al Bundy” Trump was not something I had on my bingo card.
How dare you? trump has never scored even a single touchdown, let alone four in one game!
POLK HIGH!
Not bashing Al Bundy, but I think it would be hilarious if we start referring to Trump as a shoe salesman from now on.
Trump is a stinky shoe. It won’t smell any better no matter how many times you sniff it. Just gotta put the shoe down and walk away. #Trump’s true enemy is apathy.
That’s not fair…he also trades off-brand Pokémon cards.
Al was a better father.
What’s truly sad about this is that the same people who would buy golden sneakers from Trump will have already lost one or both of their feets to the diabeesus.
These are going to sell out regardless of if anyone buys them. This is just a way rich people launder money.
Sell something that costs a minimal amount to make for an outrageous price. They don’t have to worry about whether or not a consumer would buy it because the object is trivial. It’s about legally passing money from one place to another in a way that looks like business.
The same thing happens when you see obvious trash make it onto a ‘best seller’ list.
Like all those terrible political books by candidates which are then bought en mass by super PACs and others to funnel money into the campaign.
Ramona and Diabeezus
Christ those are fucking ugly. Guaranteed to be exclusively worn by elderly people and the worst kind of Trump-humping schmucks.
And exclusively made in China.
They’d be good for a street performer.
A ‘limited’ 1000x run for a 399$ shoe is a bit short of the 500m that he needs to come up with. It’s like Eric found out that he can get rebranded dropshit on aliexpress
I’m pretty sure this will be in a movie sometime soon. Some douchebag will be rocking these and be the most unforgivably shitty person in the plot arc.
The Boys has already filmed this scene for season 4, I guarantee it.
Why are fascists so into selling shoes? Trump, Ye, Adidas…
Cheap to make, so large profit margins
Plus, clever people save up for shoes that last decades. Stupid people save up for shoes the same price that last 6 months
And to be clear, Al was a much better character than Donnie ever will be
Welcome to ‘People to Laugh At’”
https://birthdayshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/bdayshoes/al_bundy_gods_shoes.jpg
A feature of having no scruples, no shame and no class when in a position of cult power, is that this type of sociopath can keep milking the gullible for a shot of fresh cash, on a regular basis.
The funniest part is that he is the literal golden calf the Bible warned about. Every stupid idea he has had prior has culminated into this ugly, golden shoe.
Doesn’t the gold on those shoes look spray painted to you?
That is going to crack when drying after the first bit of water splashed on them.
Yeah because he is broke in relative terms. Everyone thought it was really rich but it turned out he just lied about it all.
Where do I bid 2¢?
