There’s an eponymous saying attributed to P.T. Barnum that we’re all familiar with: There’s a sucker born every minute.
But based on a report from NBC News, it’s probably safe to say that when it comes to supporters of failed, one-term, twice-impeached and once-indicted former president Donald Trump, those suckers are born every second.
Take, for example, John Amann, who says he purchased $2,200 worth of Trump Bucks over the past year but was told they were worthless when he tried to cash them in at his bank.
NBC News has identified the Colorado-based companies behind the Trump Bucks as Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots and reviewed dozens of social posts, online complaints and hundreds of misleading ads for the products. Additionally, NBC News has found at least a dozen people like Amann who say they invested thousands of dollars after watching the pitches on Telegram and other websites that strongly suggested that Trump himself was endorsing these products.
“Now I’m questioning whether he is aware of this,” Amann said of Trump.
There’s no proof that the failed ex-president is connected to the scam, though if he were, you know he’d be getting a hefty share of the profits and would also likely deny he was.
Patriots Dynasty, the company behind the scam, operates out of a industrial center in Denver and has been given an F rating by the Better Business Bureau.
All of this is part of a larger scam goes by the moniker of the Trump Rebate Banking System (TRB for short), which is telling buyers that when Trump is returned to office, he’ll unveil a new monetary system that will magically transform the Trump Bucks into money that is worth much more than what they paid for the items.
Invest in a TRB membership card “issued by Donald Trump,” the ads from Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots claim, and the purchaser who spent, say, $99.99 on a “$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks” bill will be able to cash it in for $10,000 at major banks and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot.
“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,” a narrator identified only as “John” that appears to be a computer-generated voice says in one YouTube ad just moments after cautioning viewers that “Trump Bucks are not legal tender.”
Another victim, a 75-year-old grandmother who lives in Alabama, had this to say about the Trump Bucks, which she now realizes have no value whatsoever:
“I saw all these ads on Telegram that had Trump pushing coins and checks that he endorsed and how you can cash them in after a year and make a profit. I was told how you can go to Bank of America or Target or Amazon to cash them in.”
But when she went to the local Bank of America branch, she found out that she’d been conned out of $1,500.
“When we get there the lady tells me she’s seen dozens of people coming in to cash these checks and they have nothing to do with this,” the grandmother said.
“Now I realize, well, that was stupid,” she said. “But I bought them because I believed President Trump, because he knows all about finance, and he was going to help the real Trump Patriots get rich.”
Suckers. Every last one of them.
