Alleged scammers have been cashing in on a “Trump Bucks” scheme that has some of the former president’s most fervent and vulnerable supporters buying worthless checks, coins, and cards they believe will make them rich.
According to an NBC News report, Trump Bucks are being advertised on areas of the internet peddling conspiracies to the MAGA crowd. These Trump Bucks look like coins, checks, or membership cards and often have Trump’s face on them, but they are not legal tender — something purchasers have discovered when trying to redeem them at stores and banks. There is no evidence that Trump or his campaign are associated with the purported scam, but videos with AI-generated audio impersonating Trump (or sometimes billionaire Elon Musk) appear to endorse the products.
“Let’s make America wealthy again,” an AI-generated Trump voice says in one video on TikTok surfaced by NBC.
Another video on YouTube claims, “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.” But just seconds before that, the ad said that “Trump Bucks are not legal tender.”