Did Melania Trump Really Buy Her Own NFT?

Though Melania Trump has mostly remained out of the spotlight since her husband, former President Donald Trump, left the White House, she has recently made headlines for a brand new venture. At the end of 2021, Melania announced that she would be launching a venture to sell NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, in exchange for a Solan token, which is currently worth approximately $180. According to ABC News, non-fungible tokens are digital certificates of authenticity typically attached to digital art or music. In Melania's case, her NFTs were attached to the "Head of State Collection, 2022" that included digital works of art recreating the image of Melania wearing a wide-brimmed hat during the 2018 visit with French President Emanuel Macron, along with an NFT, per Vice. The sale of this collection was launched on January 11.

Despite the fact that Melania claims that she is continuing to promote her Be Best campaign that first began during her tenure in the White House, a former White House official that this latest venture may just be Melania's way of looking busy and getting quick cash investments for future Trump family plans. "This is not exactly using her platform for larger global or domestic impact," the source told CNN. "This is ostensibly a quick moneymaker. It's a classic Trump move, using their brand and their supporters to cash in."

In January, Melania Trump listed the bid history and winner of the "Head of State Collection, 2022" non-fungible token (NFT) auction. This history was revealed through a series of blockchain transactions that displayed the cryptocurrency used to purchase Melania's NFT. According to Bloomberg Wealth, Melania's first NFT sold for 1,800 SOL, which is worth approximately $185,000. However, upon examining the bid history of Melania's auction, Bloomberg Wealth noticed something odd: The creator of the auction (Melania) transferred 372,657 USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, to the second account that sent the aforementioned 1,800 SOL to the third account that was listed as the official winner of the auction. Just a few days after those series of transactions took place, Melania's account sent 1,800 SOL back to the second account. With these public records on full display, many have purported that Melania (or someone on her team) funded the sale of her own NFT.

Though Melania claims that the NFT was purchased by a third-party buyer, her office has still failed to elaborate on any details in the NFT's blockchain transaction. According to Vice, perhaps the only other reason for the strange transactions might be the fact that due to the decreasing value of cryptocurrency at the time, her team decided not to allow buyers using SOL to place bids, and that is the reason why those monetary conversions took place in the blockchain transaction.