The curious hunt for the company behind Trump watches | CNN Politics
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CNN searched for the maker of the candidate’s new ‘Swiss-made’ timepieces. The search dead-ended in a Wyoming shopping center.
  • thefartographer@lemm.ee
    72·
    1 month ago

    There, sharing a parking lot with a hodgepodge of businesses including an H&R Block, a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant and a “vape and hemp smoke shop,” is a nondescript office space that serves as the mailing address for TheBestWatchesOnEarth LLC, the company behind the new line of Trump watches. The building houses a daycare, but there is no sign of the watches Trump says, “puts you in a very exclusive club.”

    CNN found dozens of other companies that claim the address as their own, too, including a separate limited liability corporation selling Trump-themed sneakers through a licensing agreement with the former president. Some are as far flung as a Washington, DC, lobbying firm that represents the government of Montenegro, while others have left little trace of their whereabouts.

    Another company linked to the address has a name that is evocative of TheBestWatchesOnEarth LLC. It’s registered to the same address as Kingdom Honey LLC, which also goes by TheBestHoneyOnEarth on its online retail store, the Royal Honey Shop. There it sells “Male Enhancement Honey” products – some of which the Food and Drug Administration has warned people not to consume after it found they contained the erectile dysfunction drug used in Viagra.

    The FDA cautioned these supposed “natural” nectars could adversely interact with other prescriptions or cause significant health risks to people with diabetes and heart conditions. Besides that, the FDA wrote in 2022, “there is no medical proof that consuming this type of honey with herbs will provide any sexual enhancement or other claimed benefits.”

    CNN was unable to find documentation of a direct link between the honey company and Trump. Reached by email, a spokesperson for the honey seller, Vladimir Dmitriev, called it “a highly reputable company,” but declined to respond to a list of questions. Though none of the questions mentioned Trump, Dmitriev told CNN, “We’ve received direction from our leadership in the US not to engage with any news agencies (specifically CNN) until after November 5th,” which is Election Day.

    All of these corporations share the same “organizer,” Andrew Pierce, whose company serves as the registered agent and as the gatekeeper for more details about the business Trump is promoting in the final weeks of his third White House bid.

    Why aren’t they calling these companies “TotallyNotMoneyLaundering LLC”?

    • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
      39·
      1 month ago

      a spokesperson for the honeyseller, Vladimir Dmitriev

      Listen, obviously people with names like that can be totally normal and great people. For sure. But this name, connected financially to this candidate, at this time. Guys… It’s not a good look…

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      1 month ago

      This could be the next season of Trailer Park Boys.

      I could totally see Ricky trying to sell some illegal Viagra by putting it in sugar water and then having bees make honey out of it.

      “It’s the bees putting it in the honey, I’m just the mid-low-man”

      Julian makes all the LLCs, nice and legal, and Bubbles runs the websites.

      • FilthyHandsEnglish
        5·
        1 month ago

        Then one by one, starting with cory and trevor, then jroc and the roc pile, eventually randy and lahey, all suffer erections lasting more than 4 hours.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 month ago

          They hide the illegal viagra in the day care, which is run by Lucy, Sarah, and Trinity. But they find out the cops are coming so Cory and Trevor have to move it.

          Then when the cops get there they arrest Corey and Trevor for child endangerment for having raging boners in a day care.

          The cops bust into the Roc Pile’s vape shop and they’re sitting around with boners and J Roc says “Mafks can get hard with other mafks without it being gay, knowmsayin’?”

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
    39·
    1 month ago

    To use the phrase “Swiss made” on a watch requires at least 60% of the production occur in Switzerland, 50% of the movement made and assembled in Switzerland, and technical development and final inspection must occur in Switzerland, but the trump watches only say “Swiss Made Tourbillon” and his tourbillon watch actually does use a Swiss made BCP Tourbillon T02 movement, BCP confirmed it to the Swiss press.

    The other cheaper Trump watches say they are using Seiko NH34 and NH35 movements, which are good but standard movements that you can get in $200 watches.

    They likely put these watches together on a watch building site where they clicked the parts they wanted then sent the specs off to be made in China.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
      23·
      1 month ago

      I collect mechanical manual and automatic wrist and pocket watches, and the design looks so cheap and inconsistent.

      It’s like you took a basic cheap-ass dress watch with no spirit or direction, stamped some diving watch face parts onto the surface, dumped it in yellow paint and glued on fake diamonds.

      I’m showy but I’m minimal? I’m functional but I’m aesthetic? It’s like mixing together all the paints, smearing the canvas. It doesn’t even have the beginnings of a nice watch. It has no understanding of kinds of watches or what kind of watch it wants to be rather a collection of unrelated watch parts.

      It’s a watch that says you have no taste.

  • gravitas_deficiencyEnglish
    13·
    1 month ago

    lol so the Swiss government is probably going to come after him for that. They are famously protective of their image in that regard.

  • rsuri@lemmy.world
    5·
    1 month ago

    “Well by ‘Swiss-made’ we meant partially made by someone with Swiss ancestry…except replace ‘partially’ with ‘barely’ and ‘ancestry’ with ‘Miss’”

  • Pichu0102@lemmy.worldEnglish
    62·
    1 month ago

    Wait, so something he advertised as being made in another country may actually be made here in the USA? Am I understanding this right? If so, doesn’t that make this the inverse of the red hats being made overseas, or does it still mean the same thing in that something implied to be made somewhere was made somewhere else?

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      25·
      1 month ago

      It’s not being made in the USA, it’s being sold through a front company in the USA which smells of money laundering based on the descriptions of how they’re set up. I guarantee they’re China import garbage at absolute best.