You Come Here, You Drink Trump

"Forty-Five" cocktail (Wyoming whiskey, Demerara, orange bitters, Diet Coke, garnished with "two American beef sliders"), $45, at 45 Wine and Whiskey, burgers not shown.

Shane Goldmacher and Eric Lipton at The New York Times seemingly giddy with pleasure at how enthusiastically The Former Guy is taking care of business:

For Mr. Trump, the monetization of his post-presidency represents a return to his roots. He expertly leveraged his celebrity as the host of “The Apprentice” and his image as a decisive businessman to build credibility when he first entered politics. Now, he is executing the same playbook, only in reverse: converting a political following that provided hundreds of millions of dollars in small campaign contributions into a base of consumers for all things branded Trump.

Right. Years ago he turned his imaginary skills as the manager of a long string of real estate and tchotchke-selling businesses, based not on success (all the businesses actually failed) but rather his performance as that character on a TV drama, into a successful campaign for the presidency of the United States. Now he's turning his imaginary skills as president (in fact he is by common consent of historians, political scientists, and most normal people the worst president we've ever had) into actual success selling tchotchkes and profiting from real estate.

There are grandiose enterprises, such as a fledgling social-media company, whose billion-dollar market capitalization is largely predicated on Mr. Trump’s direct personal involvement.

If there is anybody here who really believes that Trump Media & Technology Group (with its famous ruthless business guy CEO, ex-Congressman Devin Nunes), created to run Truth Social, the social media platform that will replace Facebook and Twitter, will meet its declared expectations after missing every deadline it has set itself so far (1 December, when it was supposed to launch the beta version, and 21 February, Presidents' Day, when it was supposed to—launch the beta version; new date is 31 March)

TMTG forecasts that Truth Social will attract 15 million monetizable users through an ad-based strategy. In addition, it expects to have 81 million users over the next four years (figures based on a poll of registered voters).

—then I'd just like readers to know that my NFT is the actual Brooklyn Bridge, and they can have a piece of it if they send me a Bitcoin or two. I'm with David Trainer, who calls the holding company, Digital World Acquisitions Corp. "the culmination of all meme stocks":

• DWAC’s price and volume trends make the meme-stock trading frenzies for GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) look mild.
• Those businesses actually generate revenue and have concrete business plans. DWAC offers neither.

And [Goldmacher and Lipton go on to say] there are smaller ones, like remodeling the lobby bar of Trump Tower in Manhattan and renaming it the 45 Wine and Whiskey Bar — where specialty cocktails range in price up to, yes, $45 (that one comes with two “American beef sliders”) and can be sipped in dark velvet chairs surrounded by Mr. Trump’s black-and-white presidential portraits and paraphernalia.

“You come here, you drink Trump,” said Daniel Popescu, a 79-year-old architect and a bar regular, whose typical order is a $20 glass of Trump Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. He hailed Mr. Trump on a recent evening as “the best president this country has ever had.”

“For a billionaire to give up his life to do good for the country,” Mr. Popescu said, with a shake of his head and a sip, “it’s unbelievable.”

Other past presidents have cashed in financially after leaving the White House. Barack and Michelle Obama reportedly sold a joint book deal for $65 million. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s speechmaking after leaving the White House was estimated to have netted them $153 million by the spring of 2015, when Mrs. Clinton announced her own run for president. George W. Bush has been a mainstay on the speaking circuit, too.

The thing about the books and speeches, you know, is that the Clintons and Bushes and Obamas have something to talk about as a consequence of their experience as presidents and first ladies and senators and secretaries of state. You might not think much of it in one or another case, you might suspect them of glossing over things, or being self-serving, or lacking in valuable insight, or being (except for Barack Obama) just dreary, mechanical writers, but they had the experience, and that's what gives their work value, including monetary value, to the people who want to buy it.

Trump, amazingly, appears to have had no experience. I mean, not just as president, but throughout his life, beyond "I moved on her like a bitch," of a woman he was pursuing by taking her to furniture stores, or "we fell in love," of the supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; no experience of doing whatever it is students or real estate magnates or casino operators or presidents do. It's not surprising that he can't write his own book, most people can't, but he can't even cooperate with a ghostwriter, as we learned from Tony Schwartz. He's got nothing to offer!

Consider his rally addresses, like this one in Des Moines last October: he doesn't ever talk about anything he did—maybe an abstracted memory of a conversation he thinks he had

Remember I had the travel ban? Everyone said, “Oh, what a horrible thing.” I said, “No, we really don’t want people in our country who are going to blow up our cities, if you don’t mind.” 

or something he didn't do

Now here’s the difference, Hillary conceded. I never conceded. Never. Never conceded. No reason to concede. When you look at the numbers of these swing states, and we’re going to go over them real quickly in a little while, but when you hear these numbers of swing states, there was no reason to concede. They shouldn’t have conceded. They did the honest thing, attacking our country. Even though the numbers are greater, they don’t have the death watch in the right hand corner. Remember on CNN fake news which is down 80% in ratings.

but it mostly winds up in the place he reverts to at the end of that passage: memories of him watching TV, and being fascinated or irritated or shocked by what he sees, even while he is delivering the speech—

I keep looking at these big, beautiful screens who else is going to give you a big screen like that?

and above all in the epic narratives of him watching election returns, in 2016 or 2020.

I was up by massive numbers on election day. Even the news was saying, “Wow, what a big lead in Pennsylvania.” I love Pennsylvania, I went to school in Pennsylvania College, but what a great State and what great people, and I was up by so much, all of a sudden the booths closed, the Tabulation Centers are closed, three o’clock in the morning. And shortly thereafter, we’re tied and then we’re losing by just a little bit. We’re just losing by just a little bit. No, it’s a disgrace.

Trump's got a representative number, 45, and photographs and memorabilia, so he can set up the tavern like a Hard Trump Café, and issue a picture book (Our Journey Together, currently selling for $143 at Amazon, $294.99 for a "collectible" version, presumably with the Trump signature—

—and of course he's got the Rolodex for getting political contributions he can turn into personal bank deposits, $37,541.67 per month rent from his PAC for its Trump Tower headquarters, $135,000 from the Georgia Senate candidate he's endorsed, Herschel Walker, for a party at Mar-a-Lago, similar amounts from the "America First Policy Institute" and the "Conservative Partnership Institute". He's got the photo op and the phone call—he was selling a personal call to anyone who made a $100 million investment in TMTG, subsequently lowered to $50 million. And of course the baseball caps, T-shirts, wines (looming large on the 45 Wine & Whiskey menu), and so forth.

But he literally has no experience he can commodify. Life has not inscribed anything on that slate.