Trump’s Empire is yet another Telegram game promising an airdrop for a relatively small time investment while using the name and likeness of a right-wing icon—with no direct involvement from the person himself. Sound familiar?
Of course, that sentence could also describe X Empire, the Elon Musk-themed Telegram game that blew up in popularity last year only to disappoint many players with its airdrop. Granted, the X token on The Open Network later surged in value, if only briefly, following Donald Trump’s election win.
Trump’s Empire has a similar starting point, but is a bit more robust than X Empire was. Instead of tapping mindlessly, you are building your business and political empire by selecting upgrades, industries to enter, and people to hire to increase your income. It’s simple, but if you like making the numbers go up, then this will probably hook you.
With the airdrop on the horizon, there’s still time to jump into Trump’s Empire and earn token rewards. If you want to do exactly that, then all the info you will need is below.
What is Trump’s Empire?
Trump’s Empire is a Telegram game that is quite unlike any of the others we have seen, instead sharing a fair bit of DNA with the Bitcoin Miner mobile game. You start out with a construction company in your portfolio, and every few seconds, you’ll need to press a button to start it up and earn some passive income. However, as you earn more money, you can automate the process and invest in other businesses.
It’s simple, like most of these Telegram games, but it is doing something a little different and is easily the most engaging I’ve played so far. The numbers go up quickly enough that you always feel like its worth holding on for a few more minutes to get the next upgrade.
Since the original launch, Trump’s Empire has expanded with additional themed worlds to unlock and play called Trump President and Trump Businessman, but the core gameplay is identical.
Screenshots from Trump’s Empire. Image: Decrypt
Of course, the elephant in the room is that the game uses a cartoon likeness of Trump and his name, and it’s almost certain that the game lacks the license for either.
X Empire ended up changing its name from Musk Empire just a few weeks after launch, presumably down to the possibility of legal threats from the man himself, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see something similar happen with Trump—particularly now that he has an official Solana meme coin alongside his previous NFT collections and DeFi project.
Trump’s Empire has promised players an upcoming token airdrop, but there’s no real info on exactly what that will involve. However, that hasn’t stopped millions of players booting up Trump’s Empire in the hope of earning a payday.
How to play Trump’s Empire
Trump’s Empire starts out similarly to other tap-based Telegram games, where you press a button every few seconds to earn income thanks to your construction business you start out with. However, after you’ve earned a small amount of in-game cash, you can hire managers to do the button pressing for you, making it almost an entirely passive game.
As the cash rolls in, you can invest in other businesses or even political campaigns, and soon you’ll have a thriving business and political empire earning you passive income at all times, even if the game is closed.
Screenshots from Trump’s Empire. Image: Decrypt
But with the need for tapping gone within the first few hours of play, Trump’s Empire becomes a strategic game of where to invest your money. Do you increase your construction company’s level to get small amounts of cash every second, or do you go big and become president, earning bigger payouts but at a much slower rate?
It’s simple stuff, but with a more polished interface over many other Telegram games and a much quicker pace, Trump’s Empire might keep players hooked for longer than expected.
When is the airdrop?
As of this writing in April, the airdrop and token listing are expected “soon,” following the developers offering a TRUMPE token presale to interested early investors.
The TRUMPE token will be minted on The Open Network (TON), the only blockchain that Telegram mini apps can integrate following an exclusivity agreement earlier this year. Trump’s Empire added TON wallet connectivity in late March, ahead of the impending token launch and airdrop.
While the airdrop timing remains vague, we have some idea of the in-game actions that will eventually earn you real, on-chain tokens. The game claims that all actions will be taken into account when allocating your airdrop tokens, with factors such as passive income rate, completed achievements, and earned in-game currency all set to play a role into airdrop allocations.
But then there’s a big list of paid boosts and social interactions that will also juice players’ airdrop allocations, such as the amount of Telegram Stars spent and friends invited. Such paid factors have caused consternation with other Telegram gaming airdrops before, as they’ve often been weighted more heavily than actions that don’t make the developers any money. But we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out with Trump’s Empire.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Editor’s note: This story was originally published on January 22, 2025 and last updated with new details on April 14.
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