Anderson Cooper has eviscerated Donald Trump for selling gold coins priced as high as $12,000 on the back of his tacky birthday cage fight at the White House.
The host devoted a segment of his CNN show, Anderson Cooper 360, to the latest entry in what has become an extraordinary catalog of Trump family commercial ventures, marveling at the sheer range of products the president and his family have attached their name to since his return to the White House.
“The site says they are all designed by President Trump himself, which is amazing. Where does he find the time?” Cooper said of the garish coins, before running through the highlights in the grift repertoire: a $99 Bible, the first lady’s Bible, $399 Trump sneakers, and a $499 gold-plated Trump phone. “Then, of course, there’s the Trump meme coin, which he launched in a social media post three days before inauguration.”
Cooper noted that the Trump family has now launched four separate crypto projects. “A recent writer’s analysis found the Trump family have used these projects to generate at least $2.3 billion, which is great for them, not so great for more than a million investors who have net losses totaling $2.3 billion,” he said.
The UFC coins—branded “Trump Coins” on a dedicated sales website—come in four varieties, from a silver medallion priced at nearly $250 to a $11,999.99 gold version whose packaging includes a portrait of Trump alongside UFC chief Dana White. The collaboration is between the UFC and the Trump Organization, run by the president’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., though the Organization appears to be licensing the brand rather than manufacturing the coins directly.
The website was careful to box out the competition. “These are the only officially licensed Donald J. Trump medallions on the market,” it states. “Other Trump-themed bullion or numismatic products might be unlawful, and more importantly, none of them has an actual connection to Donald J. Trump—ours are the only medallions authorized and endorsed/designed by President Trump himself.”
The White House was unmoved by the scrutiny of the latest moneymaking venture by the first family. Spokesman Davis Ingle said the “Fake News’ continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read,” adding, “Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.”
The fight card is officially billed as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations—though it is also, not coincidentally, scheduled for Trump’s birthday on Sunday. That dual purpose has triggered a lawsuit from two Virginia residents who argue the event financially benefits both Trump and White, and that it “is not in any material sense a ‘celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’—it is, instead, a celebration of the UFC’s brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump’s birth.” A federal judge has ordered the administration to respond.
A report from earlier this year indicated Trump had purchased $50,000 in stock in UFC’s parent company.
Trump, meanwhile, has been closely overseeing construction of the staging area on the White House South Lawn and talking up the fight for weeks.
The White House has been approached for comment.
