Just in time for the holidays, Donald Trump has announced a project he’s spruiking as a “great Christmas gift” – but not everyone’s convinced.

The former US president – and 2024 presidential hopeful — announced a new NFT card collection on Thursday (US time).

Trump Digital Trading cards, available to buy for $US99 ($147), feature their namesake’s face superimposed onto different bodies ranging from a muscular superhero to a cowboy.

In a promotional video, Mr Trump said the artworks pertained to his life and career.

“Don’t wait,” he said. “They will be gone, I believe, very quickly!”

Every purchase of a card puts buyers in the running for ‘thousands’ of prizes, including various meeting options with Mr Trump himself – in-person or over Zoom.

But Thursday’s announcement left many social media users bewildered, and launched a barrage of ridicule.

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Washington Post columnist Philip Bump said Mr Trump was “losing the plot”, while Rick Wilson, from the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said: “Major Trump embarrassment, more like, amirite?”

The unveiling came as a surprise to many, despite an earlier teaser video posted to Mr Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social. It featured an animation of the business tycoon standing outside Trump Tower, ripping open his suit to reveal a superhero costume and shooting lasers from his eyes.

It sparked a popular theory that Mr Trump would announce his intention to make a bid to become speaker of the House of Representatives, which would potentially give him the power to impeach his successor, Joe Biden.

Thursday’s announcement came after polls in the US delivered a double whammy to Mr Trump’s aspirations to return to the White House in 2024.

A Wall Street Journal survey released on Wednesday gave his chief Republican rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis a 14-point lead, 52 per cent to 38 per cent, in a hypothetical primary matchup. Elsewhere, a CNN poll found that 62 per cent of Republicans wanted their party to nominate someone else for the 2024 presidential race.

On social media, some users pondered whether the former president’s latest “big announcement” was a sign he had hit hard financial times amid a plethora of recent legal dramas.

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Even Mr Trump’s supporters were left shaking their heads at his latest venture.

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It doesn’t appear the cards will hold or gain any material value beyond possible prizes. The Collect Trump Cards website specifies the NFTs are meant for “individual enjoyment only”, not for “investment vehicles”.

Punters who’d like to be in with a chance to win one of the prizes but don’t want to buy a trading card can also receive one entry in the sweepstakes without making a purchase by sending a handwritten letter including their first and last name, postal address and email in an envelope to Official Donald Trump NFT Collection Sweepstakes in Newark, New York.

The prize entry period ends on January 18.