CNN Whines About Melania Trump Selling NFTs: ‘Cash Grab,’ Wasn’t the ‘Traditional Writing Her Memoir’

CNN’s Paula Reid on Saturday lamented Melania Trump’s new NFT offering, claiming unnamed “critics” viewed it as a “cash grab.”

Reid hosted CNN White House reporter Kate Bennett in a live interview on the topic after a pre-recorded report about Trump’s new non-fungible token, which she began selling this month at $180 each and a promise that some of the proceeds would go to children’s charities.

“Critics are saying this is nothing but a cash grab, not to mention highly unusual for a former first lady,” Reid told Bennett. “Is it surprising that this was her first move?”

Bennett — who noted in her report that other celebrities selling NFTs included Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Mark Cuban — declined to confirm Reid’s claim, but said that for a first lady, it was “not exactly what most do after leaving the White House.” She also called into question the claim that some of the proceeds would go to charity, saying, “questions from CNN as to how much and which programs have gone unanswered.”

“I think that she is unpredictable,” Bennett added. “I didn’t see an NFT coming, but I knew that she wasn’t probably going to do the traditional writing her memoirs or setting up a foundation and really using that platform the way that other first ladies have.”

Rather than an NFT, Trump’s direct predecessor, former First Lady Michelle Obama, cashed in on a memoir, Becoming. Publisher Penguin Random House reportedly paid $60 million to the former first lady and her husband, former President Barack Obama, in 2017 for a pair of books that included her memoir.

Watch above via CNN.