A Capitol rioter and far-right social media troll who is facing prison over the January 6 insurrection is suddenly having regrets about supporting Donald Trump.
After the former president revealed his digital trading card collection on Thursday, Tim Gionet, better known as his online persona Baked Alaska, wrote on Twitter: “I can’t believe I’m going to jail for an NFT salesman”.
Mr Gionet became a high-profile Trump supporter during the 2016 presidential election and was banned from Twitter in 2017 after repeatedly posting anti-semitic and white nationalist content.
He was reinstated to Twitter on 11 December under Elon Musk’s amnesty for suspended accounts.
After launching his 2024 presidential campaign last month, Mr Trump teased a “major announcement” on his social media platform Truth Social this week.
“AMERICA NEEDS A SUPERHERO! I will be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT tomorrow. THANK YOU!” he posted on Wednesday.
Mr Trump then revealed he was selling $99 digital NFT cards depicting himself as a series of characters including a superhero, an astronaut and a golf player.
Republicans, Maga loyalists and even President Joe Biden chimed in to make fun of the former president’s “major announcement”.
“I had some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS the last couple of weeks, too,” Mr Biden wrote on Twitter, before listing the Brittney Griner release and other policy objectives.
Mr Gionet continued to rail against the former president on Twitter, and speculated that the Maga base would throw their support in for Kanye West.
“I wanted to make America great again but all i got was this sh***y nft,” Mr Gionet posted on Twitter.
Mr Gionet has pleaded guilty in July to one misdemeanour charge of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a federal building after live-streaming himself storming the Capitol building.
He faces a maximum prison term of six months when he is sentenced in January.
