I promised myself I wouldn’t write about Trump anymore. Just because he won’t get off the stage doesn’t mean I have to watch. That goes double for his NFTs.
But on Monday, when a third-grade teacher in Austin, Texas was scolded by a school administrator for teaching students their constitutional rights, Trump’s latest NFT went from silly to subversive.
What you see is the ex-president toting the Liberty Bell – customarily held in Independence Historical National Park in PA – as if it were his personal property.
Unlike his fantasized superhero selfie seen in Trump’s first NFT, this latest one shows America’s symbol of independence in his hands.
And the image is so matter-of-fact that it looks likely.
The sticking point is the proprietary expression on Trump’s face as he holds the Liberty Bell. It’s the same way he looked when answering why he took classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. “They’re mine.”
Reality bites
That our liberty is Trump’s to dispense is real. His party already is banning books, banning women’s rights, banning historical record, banning voting, and even banning certain speech. The NFT looks to be the face of the MAGA effort to rule.
Trump had already hijacked the American flag when he used it in multiple like curtains behind him at rallies. Now commandeering the Liberty Bell, he hefts it with ease, as if it didn’t weigh 2,000 pounds.
This, even though the heaviest metal he’s used to hefting is a golf club.
It’s no small thing that this NFT gives the impression the Liberty Bell belongs to Trump. The image is reminiscent of Taco Bell once parading the Liberty Bell in ads in 1996 and re-naming itself Taco Liberty Bell.
Because of the name change, Taco customers assumed that the fast-food restaurant company bought the rights to the Liberty Bell to use as a logo.
Only after officials at the National Historical Park assured the public that no rights were sold did Taco Bell admit that their ads were an April Fool’s gag.
But here’s the thing. The picture of Taco Liberty Bell so impacted the public that sales of burritos and enchiladas ballooned to more than half million dollars while the joke played out.
It’s no longer April 1, and Trump’s NFT is no joke. A storm is gathering over the U.S. Fascism is attracting the discontent among us. Trump has amassed a strong following. And they want him back in power. Sound familiar?
History repeating itself
Benito Mussolini said at a rally less than a week before he became Italy’s despot, “Our program is simple. We want to govern Italy.” Sure enough, he seized power, and after that came chaos. Trump not only looks like him, he sounds like him, too.
All of the above is to say that pictures matter. The one of Trump wielding the Liberty Bell so self-assuredly is persuasive. You have only to remember how Taco Bell increased its revenue in a single day when it showed the Liberty Bell in the hands of Taco Bell to imagine the effect of Trump’s new NFT.
