by Ben Meiselas
MeidasTouch
May 30, 2023
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the latest grift targeting Donald Trump supporters. It’s called ‘Trump Bucks.’ Seriously.
Transcript
I'm Ben Meiselas from the Meidas touch
Network let's take a look at the newest
Maga Republican grift it's called Trump
bucks and what's been happening is that
Mega followers have been going into
banks with these Trump bucks these Trump
dollar bills and gold coins that they've
been purchasing online which they've
been told they will get 10x or 50x
returns from and the banks have been
telling them we don't accept your Trump
bucks here NBC broke this story the
article was called Trump bucks promise
wealth for Maga loyalty some lose
thousands you think the products are
advertised online as a kind of golden
ticket that will help Propel Trump's
2024 bid and make the quote real
Patriots who support him Rich when they
are cashed in the article covers one
Trump supporter in particular named John
Ammon of course his Twitter handle is
johnama
348-28664 and it says alert if you
purchased any of the trb systems items
you got scammed the trb vouchers Donald
J trumpgoldenchecks Donald J Trump
Diamond checks trb golden checks have no
monetary value they are only
commemorative only you think the article
goes on to talk about how these Mega
Republicans believe that Trump's ouster
was part of a great conspiracy and that
by investing in the Trump rebate banking
system trb the Trump rebate banking
system or trb for short Trump will
reward their loyalty
by making them Rich those who buy these
items the ads from a company called
Patriots dynasty Patriots future and USA
Patriots suggest will be rewarded when
Trump unveils a new monetary system that
will turn these products into legal
tender worth far more than the purchase
price invest in a trb membership card
quote issued by Donald Trump the ads
from Patriot Dynasty Patriots future and
USA Patriots claim and the purchaser who
spent say
99.99 on a ten thousand dollar Diamond
Trump bucks bill will be able to cash it
in for ten thousand dollars at Major
Banks and retailers like Walmart Costco
and Home Depot of course this is all all
a fraud by the way here is the website
for the trb collect card just so you see
what it looks like and this is what it
says it goes the trb black collect card
is here it is finally time to claim what
is yours make your dreams come true
because this is your only chance to get
a hold of the trb black collect card we
know all of you have been waiting
patiently for so long and now is the
time when you will have everything that
was promised with President Trump you
always have a chance for a better future
week leave strong stay glad to see so
many of you are strong Patriots and it
goes on to say makes a perfect gift for
other Patriots and Trump supporters live
the American dream live the life you
were promised and get the things you
always wanted without thinking twice
enjoy the benefits as a trump supporter
there are 74 million Americans and a
hundred million around the world Trump
supporters the trb membership is an
official validation to the customer for
being a member of the trb club which
strives to be the biggest supporters
Club of Donald Trump all United in one
goal to do whatever they can to support
him and here's the thing folks there has
been this entire ecosystem built around
Donald Trump's script and this is just
one of countless examples and it's
predatory and preying on people frankly
who magger Republicans are attacking
each and every day with their policies
and they are being grifted upon and lied
to with all of these fake claims
meanwhile the actual political party is
getting them all angry about whatever
issued du jour of their culture War of
the day meanwhile they're picking their
pockets each and every day quite
literally it's got a bunch of
weird fake looking reviews from these
people and it's and it's just sad to see
it's like these photos of families
someone named Charlotte I originally
ordered 10 trb black cards but I had to
come back to order 20 more my friends
were really happy when they received
them oh that sounds legit Ted and
Miranda right I'm a loyal supporter of
Donald Trump and I can say that this trb
black card changed my life my family
sure loved them I'm not going to read
you uh the others uh the article goes on
to talk about how trb system membership
cards are official cards this is what
the false claim is issued by Donald
Trump to allow Trump bucks holders to
use Trump bucks as legal tender and
deposit them in Banks such as JPMorgan
Chase the Bank of America and Wells
Fargo a narrator identified only as John
says in the advertisements and all of
that is completely false the article
then goes on to highlight a Alabama
Grand grandmother who brought the Trump
bucks into a Bank of America and the
teller told her she'd seen dozens of
people coming in to cash these products
but it's a fraud here's what the article
says one 75 year old Alabama grandmother
who consented to having her picture
taken by NBC but asked not to be
identified by name for fear of Internet
harassment told NBC News the message she
got from watching the pitches on the
internet was that Trump was going to
make her rich
but the grandmother who describes
herself as quote a real Patriot said
what she got for the fifteen hundred
dollars she invested in the Trump bucks
turned out to be Fool's Gold quote I saw
all these ads on telegram that had Trump
pushing coins and checks that he
endorsed and how you can cash them in
after a year and make a profit the
grandmother who lives uh is told NBC I
was told how you can go back to I was
told how you can go to Bank of America
or Target or Amazon to cash them in
about six months ago the grandmother
said she gathered up the Trump bucks and
commemorative coins she had purchased
and drove 60 miles east to the nearest
Bank of America branch she could find in
Pensacola Florida there she said she was
greeted by a teller who told her she'd
been scammed quote when we get there the
lady tells me she's been seeing dozens
of people coming in to cash these checks
and they they have nothing to do with
this the grandmother said it of course
that was happening in Florida a Florida
woman who lives north of Tampa and who
also asked not to be identified by name
because she fears internet harassment
said her 77 year old grandmother-in-law
was also fooled into investing tens of
thousands of dollars into Trump bucks
quote my mother-in-law has always been
conservative and prone to believe in
conspiracy theories that doesn't make
her conservative we need to stop calling
these Trump supporters conservative
but quote but after Trump lost the
election she went down the internet
rabbit hole with this to prove to our
mother-in-law that she had been swindled
the Florida woman said she drove her to
a nearby Bank and urged her to try to
redeem the Trump bucks in her possession
quote we thought she got it she even
admitted she got scammed the Florida
woman said quote but then giant boxes
arrived at the house full of trump
checks and other stuff she bought for
five hundred dollars and that would
supposedly be worth six million dollars
one day we tell her she's getting
scammed and she says quote just wait
Trump will make all the Patriots Rich
quote it's like she's in a cult the
Florida woman said now as from Donald
Trump in the Trump campaign according to
this NBC article repeated attempts to
reach a spokesperson for Trump and his
re-election campaign by email have gone
unanswered but no evidence suggests that
the alleged scammers are connected to
Trump or his re-election campaign but I
will say this if you go to truth social
don't go but if you do which I do
because I do these reports you will see
on these that the ads on Truth social
are for products that look very similar
okay I don't know if these products are
the same ones that are talked about in
the NBC article but look at this this is
on Trump's social media platform what's
being advertised
patriotsurging.com Trump issues free one
thousand dollar bill to all supporters
claim yours now this is an ad ostensibly
Trump is getting paid for this if this
is on true social here's another one
from Newsmax during the
Trump speech and you know the links
between Newsmax and Donald Trump and the
right-wing ecosystem where it says
Trump's speech special free gold coin
unqualifying orders if you just text
Trump to that phone number here's
another ad by the way on Truth social
tired of overpaying woke insurance
companies this is the insurance company
endorsed by Don Jr and as I talked about
before there is this entire grifting
ecosystem modeled after Donald Trump's
ultimate grift if you ever go to
um watch any of these videos we post
about these Trump rallies for example
it's all of these trumpers like grifting
off of other trumpers like that's it's
an ecosystem of grift here's one for
example from a trump rally back in 2021
where they were selling women's P
funnels for fifteen dollars during the
rally and the same booth that selling P
funnels was selling the Cowboy Coffee as
well so Cowboy Coffee what actually
looks free Cowboy Coffee if you buy the
women's pee funnel right there and then
you have all of these shirts that they
buy and it and they sell each other
it is very problematic folks going to
the story of the uh women who said that
her mother-in-law is in a cult we have
to call thisbBehavior by its name and
that's an accurate one but it's not the
other c word it's not conservative this
Behavior this is just not normal
behavior okay this is problematic
Behavior this is dangerous Behavior okay
and this is what the Republican party
has become today the Maga Republican
party deeply distressing but it is
important for us all in the
pro-democracy community to call it out
and that's what we do here on the Meidas
touch Network each and every day hit
subscribe on the YouTube channel we're
on our way to 1.5 million subscribers
thanks to your awesome support check us
out at patreon.com Meidas Touch
for the best
pro-democracy membership content and
wherever you get audio podcast subscribe
to the Meidas touch audio podcast as well
have a great day and hit subscribe on
our YouTube channel
*********************
‘Trump Bucks’ promise wealth for MAGA loyalty. Some lose thousands. The products are advertised online as a kind of golden ticket that will help propel Trump’s 2024 bid and make the “real patriots” who support him rich when they are cashed in.
Photo Illustration: Donald Trump and "membership cards" for the "Official TRB System". A get-rich-quick scam taking hold on the internet promises big profits to purchasers of "Trump Bucks" but instead delivers memorabilia that no bank will cash. NBC News / Getty Images; Golden Patriots Future
by Brandy Zadrozny and Corky Siemaszko
NBC News
May 27, 2023, 5:00 AM MDT
In the recesses of the internet where some of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters stoke conspiracies and plot his return to the White House, suspected con artists have been mining their disappointment over the last presidential election for gold.
They’ve been peddling “Trump Bucks,” which are emblazoned with photos of the former president, and advertising them online as a kind of golden ticket that will help propel Trump’s 2024 bid and make the “real patriots” who support him rich when cashed in.
John Amann told NBC News he bought $2,200 worth of Trump Bucks and other items over the past year only to discover they were worthless when he tried to cash them in at his local bank. So he’s gone on Twitter to warn other Trump supporters not to fall for this scam.
John Amann
@JohnAma34828664·Follow
Alert if you purchased any of the TRB SYSTEMS ITEMS, YOU GOT SCAMMED. THE TRB VOUCHERS, DJT GOLDEN CHECKS, DJT DIAMOND CHECKS, TRB GOLDEN CHECKS have no monetary values they are COMMEMORATIVE ONLY.
3:58 AM · Feb 3, 2023
NBC News has identified the Colorado-based companies behind the Trump Bucks as Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots and reviewed dozens of social posts, online complaints and hundreds of misleading ads for the products. Additionally, NBC News has found at least a dozen people like Amann who say they invested thousands of dollars after watching the pitches on Telegram and other websites that strongly suggested that Trump himself was endorsing these products.
“Now I’m questioning whether he is aware of this,” Amann said of Trump.
Repeated attempts to reach a spokesperson for Trump and his re-election campaign by email have gone unanswered. No evidence suggests the alleged scammers are connected to Trump or his re-election campaign.
In addition to tweeting a warning to others about the scam, Amann said he posted a review on TrustPilot, a website where consumers can rate and review businesses.
The Federal Trade Commission, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from NBC News, confirmed it has received one fraud complaint against Patriots Dynasty that was filed in January. But it provided no further details about the single complaint or who filed it.
The Better Business Bureau has given the companies, which operate out of an industrial center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, an F rating, and the 33 complaints on the BBB site are unsparing in their criticism of the company.
Repeated attempts to reach representatives for the companies by phone and email were unsuccessful. But Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin said he’s heard reports from bank employees of customers coming in to exchange their Trump Bucks for actual cash, but the bank routinely turns them down.
“It’s hard to put a number on how many people have come in,” Halldin said when asked for more specifics about who these people are and where they are located.
BOA, as a matter of course, is continually on the lookout for fraudsters and circulates information in-house about possible scams, Halldin said.
That’s little comfort to Amann, who is 77 and lives in Houston. “There’s no way to cash out what I have,” he said.
What it is
Since 2020, when Joe Biden defeated Trump in the presidential election, internet hucksters have been selling pro-Trump products like coins, checks and cards and marketing them as novelty items.
The fine print on the websites offering these items usually notes that they are memorabilia.
But on social media and in promotional videos — many featuring faked celebrity endorsements — the sellers have tapped an audience that believes Trump’s ouster was part of a great conspiracy and that by investing in the Trump Rebate Banking System, or TRB for short, Trump will reward their loyalty by making them rich.
Those who buy these items, the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots suggest, will be rewarded when Trump unveils a new monetary system that will turn these products into legal tender worth far more than the purchase price.
A booklet, a check and a collection of coins an Alabama grandmother bought when she invested $1,500 in “Trump Bucks.” Dan Anderson for NBC News
Invest in a TRB membership card “issued by Donald Trump,” the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim, and the purchaser who spent, say, $99.99 on a “$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks” bill will be able to cash it in for $10,000 at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot.
“TRB system membership cards are official cards issued by Donald Trump to allow Trump Bucks holders to use Trump Bucks as legal tender and deposit them in banks such as JP Morgan Chase, the Bank of America and Wells Fargo,” a narrator identified only as “John” that appears to be a computer-generated voice says in one YouTube ad just moments after cautioning viewers that “Trump Bucks are not legal tender.”
“Wells Fargo has no affiliation with this product, and cannot accept it for deposit,” a bank spokesperson said.
JP Morgan Chase did not immediately respond to an email from NBC News seeking additional comment.
It’s a get-rich-quick scam that is catnip to a certain kind of Trump supporter — including QAnon believers and others who believe the former president is the only solution to America’s problems.
NBC also reached out to representatives for Walmart, Costco and Home Depot by email to see if they’ve had customers come in to try to cash in their Trump Bucks.
“We don’t have any connection to this, and it isn’t a problem we’re seeing at our stores,” Home Depot spokesman Terrance Roper said in an email to NBC News.
Walmart spokesman Robert Arrieta said “we have not heard of this scam.”
An Alabama grandmother holds one of the coins she bought online in her apartment in Mobile on May 19. Dan Anderson for NBC News
“We don’t have any program that resembles this,” Arrieta said and referred a reporter to the company’s fraud alert page.
Michael J. Clark, a former FBI agent who teaches criminal justice at the University of New Haven, said it’s likely many of the victims have not yet figured out they’ve been conned.
“If this is indeed a scam, the victims have not had enough time to realize they have been scammed as they will be awaiting the result of the 2024 presidential elections to receive the benefit of their initial outlay of money,” Clark said via email.
How it spreads
Fawning reviews are posted on dozens of websites with the headlines “SCAM OR LEGIT” that can stack Google with positive results and in hundreds of YouTube videos.
In AI-generated promotional videos shared on social media and in chat groups, celebrities and politicians, including Trump, appear to endorse the scam.
In one, Trump appears to announce the launch of the TRB system on Fox News.
“Let’s make America wealthy again,” the artificially generated voice of Trump says.
In another, Twitter-owner Elon Musk appears to say “That Trump certificate is not a joke, it’s real. Everyone needs to get as many as they can. I spend one million dollars on Trump certificates and this week I’m going to cash out my Trump items. Soon I will be the richest person on the planet again.”
In reality, the advertisement features footage lifted from Musk’s appearance at a TED event in 2022. The video ends with a slide advertising a free app that promises to “make your favorite celebrity say anything.
It’s so pervasive that even pro-Trump websites and Trump supporters have been sounding the alarm.
Blogger Noah Christopher, who is the moderator of the “WeLoveTrump” Telegram group with 26,000 subscribers, has urged his followers more than 30 times this year alone to “not get conned.”
“The faked videos have been posted relentlessly by fake social media accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and in Telegram groups catering to devoted Trump supporters,” Noah wrote last month. “Unreal how pervasive and aggressive this scam is.”
Christopher did not respond to an email from NBC News seeking additional comment.
One 75-year-old Alabama grandmother, who consented to having her picture taken but asked not to be identified by name for fear of internet harassment, told NBC News the message she got from watching the pitches on the internet was that Trump was going to make her rich.
But the grandmother, who describes herself as a “real patriot,” said what she got for the $1,500 she invested in Trump Bucks turned out to be fool’s gold.
An Alabama grandmother said a Bank of America teller told her that she'd seen dozens of people coming in to cash the products. Dan Anderson for NBC News
“I saw all these ads on Telegram that had Trump pushing coins and checks that he endorsed and how you can cash them in after a year and make a profit,” the grandmother, who lives in Mobile, told NBC News. “I was told how you can go to Bank of America or Target or Amazon to cash them in.”
About six months ago, the grandmother said, she gathered up the Trump Bucks and commemorative coins she had purchased and drove 60 miles east to the nearest Bank of America branch she could find in Pensacola, Florida.
There, she said, she was greeted by a teller who told her she’d been scammed.
“When we get there the lady tells me she’s seen dozens of people coming in to cash these checks and they have nothing to do with this,” the grandmother said.
A Florida woman who lives north of Tampa, and who also asked not to be identified by name because she fears internet harassment, said her 77-year-old mother-in-law was also fooled into investing tens of thousands of dollars in Trump Bucks.
“My mother-in-law has always been conservative and prone to believe in conspiracy theories,” she said. “But after Trump lost the election, she went down the internet rabbit hole with this.”
This isn’t the first time her mother-in-law has fallen prey to a Trump-inspired scam.
“Several years back, she got into Nesara, which says that a radical reset of the U.S. economy is coming and all debts are going to be wiped out,” the Florida woman said. “She thinks she’s getting all the money back and that she’ll make a huge profit too.”
First, the Florida woman said, her mother-in-law “started buying all this support Trump memorabilia from a website that clearly states it's memorabilia.”
Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim purchasers will be able to cash in coins and checks like these at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot. Dan Anderson for NBC News
“From there, she went to other sites which has all sorts of people claiming that if you buy these Trump coins or these Trump checks for, say, a hundred dollars, you’ll be able to take them to a bank and cash them in for thousands of dollars.”
To prove to her mother-in-law that she had been swindled, the Florida woman said she drove her to a nearby bank and urged her to try to redeem the Trump Bucks in her possession.
“We thought she got it, she even admitted she got scammed,” the Florida woman said. “But then giant boxes arrived at the house full of Trump checks and other stuff that she bought for $500 and that would supposedly be worth $6 million one day. We tell her she’s getting scammed and she says, ‘Just wait, Trump will make all the patriots rich.’”
“It’s like she’s in a cult,” the Florida woman said.
Who profits?Good question. It’s not clear who concocted the TRB system scheme or created the fake promotional videos.
A 2022 New York Times investigation reported a Romanian marketing company to be at the origin of so-called Trump coins — which had been wildly popular in 2022 and were also fraudulently marketed as a kind of alternative currency.
Most of the posts and videos for the TRB system currently link to websites registered with the company names Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots, whose listed address can be traced to Shipoffers.com, a shipping center in Aurora, Colorado.
Shipoffers warehouse manager Josh Pier said the center ships Trump-related products but said it doesn't manufacture them. He declined to discuss what those products are and would not confirm the names of the companies it ships for. The company handles shipping for a variety of companies, he said.
Pier was echoed by Tony Grebmeier, one of the Shipoffers owners, who said he was unaware of any problems with any of the products the company ships and said if he was aware of any issues he’d take care of them.
Responding to overwhelmingly negative Google reviews, Shipoffers tells unhappy buyers that it doesn't actually make the products or bill customers.
The TRB products are purchased through online retailers ClickBank and Digistore24, which are affiliate marketing networks based in Idaho and Florida that connect would-be promoters with products to sell and earn commissions.
The unique links posted across social media and in the captions of YouTube videos contain the usernames of these affiliate marketers, who get a cut from each sale generated by the fraudulent ads.
A list of URLS for just one website, shows hundreds of affiliate marketers associated with a TRB membership booklet, a product falsely marketed as necessary to redeem the TRB products for real money.
NBC News has also reached out to ClickBank, Digistore24 and ShipOffers for comment. When an NBC News reporter called the Patriots Dynasty phone number, she got a busy signal. There was also no response to an email sent to the address associated with Patriots Dynasty.
The Alabama grandmother said she initially thought the products were a good investment but realized later they were worthless. Dan Anderson for NBC News
The Alabama grandmother says she was initially fooled by the AI version of Trump she saw in the ads. She trusted Trump’s supposed business acumen and thought this was a good investment to have something to leave behind for her children.
“Now I realize, well, that was stupid,” she said. “But I bought them because I believed President Trump, because he knows all about finance, and he was going to help the real Trump Patriots get rich.”
Brandy Zadrozny is a senior reporter for NBC News. She covers misinformation, extremism and the internet.
Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.
Vicky Collins contributed.
