The Trump Organization’s merchandise shop was resurrected after being booted from the Shopify platform in the wake of the Capitol riot by a tech company called Rackspace Inc – the majority owner of which Bloomberg reports to be Apollo Capital Management, a hedge fund which until last week was helmed by Jeffrey Epstein patron Leon Black. Black resigned from his role as CEO of Apollo on January 25th after it was revealed to the hedge fund’s board that Black had paid over $150 million to Jeffrey Epstein in what was most likely either Black being extorted by Epstein or Black kicking back after laundering extortion payments to Epstein made by others.
TrumpStore.com is distinct from the Trump 2020 Campaign’s now defunct merchandise shop, and long predates Trump’s career in politics, selling chintzy Trump-branded souvenirs and household/personal goods of suspect quality. Bloomberg’s report says Rackspace reactivated the site on January 15th, ten days prior to Black’s departure from Apollo, so the connection is tenuous at best, however it is still interesting – particularly because the Trump Organization could’ve outsourced the work to a foreign firm and probably for cheaper than whatever Rackspace/Apollo would be charging, as well as the fact that Bloomberg’s article indicates that Rackspace went through some unusual additional steps to mask their company is hosting a site that brought in less than $2 million in sales during 2020, per Trump’s financial statements for that year.