The mysterious former first lady Melania Trump expressed herself with a forest of stark blood-red Christmas trees decorating the White House a year before her husband left office. And there were hints that she may have changed her premarital agreement after Donald Trump took office, months before she and their youngest son moved to Washington, D.C. But after we see her auctioning off some of her belongings, we wonder how rich (or broke) she really is.
The former first lady put three objects up for bid, with the bundle starting at $250,000, CNN Business reported. The first was an iconic white, wide-brimmed hat she wore at one of the White House state visits. The second was a watercolor of her in the hat, and the third was “a non-fungible token (NFT) of the illustration with animation.”
Bidding just ended, but it appeared that the former first lady had extremely poor timing for selling her “Head of State Collection.” She set the minimum requirement at 1,800 Solana but only Solana tokens. She did not give a reason for specifying the cryptocurrency, and the unstable cryptocurrency just took a huge dive, down 40 percent.
In addition, only five people bid in the auction. Every one of them bid the minimum. Technically, they met the minimum requirement. But when Solana dropped, that pulled the bids well under the $250,000. Other cryptocurrencies bottomed out, too, down 20, 30, and 40 percent.
Even the well-known Bitcoin cryptocurrency dropped over 20 percent in the latest run. Cryptocurrencies have been extremely volatile due to their unregulated market.
On top of that, people simply were not interested in Melania’s belongings. Given that, her over-the-top minimum, and the cryptocurrency dive made her collection far less appealing. She finally sold the items for approximately $170,000. That was an $80,000 dip below her opening bid.
In December, Melania Trump entered the NFT market, saying that she was letting go of “a digital piece of her artwork depicting her eyes” for $150 each. She said that a portion of the sales in December and in the auction would go to “a charity to help foster children.”
Attorney General (AG) Letitia (Tish) James announced that Melania’s husband was caught scamming charities in 2019. And he was ordered:
‘[To pay] more than $2 million in court-ordered damages to eight different charities for illegally misusing charitable funds at the Trump Foundation for political purposes.’
At that time, he AG announced that she was closing down the Trump Foundation “for misusing charitable funds for his own political gain:”
‘Not only has the Trump Foundation shut down for its misconduct, but the president has been forced to pay $2 million for misusing charitable funds for his own political gain. Charities are not a means to an end, which is why these damages speak to the president’s abuse of power and represent a victory for not-for-profits that follow the law.’
The AG continued
‘Funds have finally gone where they deserve — to eight credible charities. My office will continue to fight for accountability because no one is above the law — not a businessman, not a candidate for office, and not even the president of the United States.’
Time will tell whether Mrs. Trump’s alleged contributions actually make it to a destination that honestly helps children.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
