Bill Zanker

Zanker grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, earned a bachelor of arts degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and then studied for a master’s degree in film at The New School in New York. He has recalled that his father took him to lunch at the time and told him he would no longer support his studies and that he should go out and get a job.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1980, Zanker used his bar mitzvah money to put together a brochure of courses based on friends’ suggestions and handed it out to commuters at Grand Central Terminal in New York early in the morning, thereby founding the Learning Annex, a company offering short courses for adults, in New York. Courses usually lasted 4 to 10 hours and cost $21 to $140, with offerings such as “The Firewalking Experience”; the company also drew controversy for a course on how to cheat on your spouse without getting caught.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In March 1982, to celebrate the enrollment of the Learning Annex’s 100,000th student, Zanker planned to throw $10,000 in cash off the Empire State Building; building officials called it a crass publicity stunt, and police stopped the plan when the crowd around the building got unruly. He then instead handed out 1,000 free subway tokens at a subway station.⁠[1][1][1]

In August 1984, the Learning Annex went public. By early 1985, the company described itself as the largest non-accredited adult education center in the United States, with about 250,000 people having signed up for its courses; it had expanded from New York to Chicago and Atlanta and planned to move into Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, and the US West Coast. Zanker was its founder, president, and chief executive officer and held about a one-third stake in the company.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In December 1992, Zanker founded the Great American Backrub Store, a chain offering clothed back rubs and stress-relief products, and served as its chairman; its first store opened in Manhattan in October 1993, and a franchised outlet opened in Las Vegas in 1994. He said the idea came from a man on a park bench in San Francisco offering one-minute back rubs for $1, and that his goal was to create a “McRub” national chain by 2000. On February 28, 1995, the company completed an initial public offering of 1.25 million shares at $5 each, trading on Nasdaq under the symbol RUBB, after which the share price fell below $4; the company had lost money from its inception through September 30, 1994.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

In 2001, Zanker invited Donald Trump to give a talk at the Learning Annex, and Trump thereafter taught for a long period at the Learning Annex’s large “wealth expos.”⁠[3][4]

In 2007, Zanker and Trump co-wrote Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life, a book about success. On October 16 of that year, the two held a signing at a Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York; the Learning Annex had run an advertisement proclaiming “Donald Trump Is Giving Away Money,” and $100, $50, and $10 bills were handed out to readers at the front of the line. Zanker said he did this to inspire others: “Donald changed my life and I try to change other people’s lives.”⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

The two stopped doing business together during Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign; about seven years later, Zanker approached Trump about launching NFT collections featuring his likeness, and Trump agreed. On December 15, 2022, Trump announced on Truth Social the launch of an official digital trading card collection, priced at $99 per card, depicting him as a superhero, an astronaut, a cowboy, and other figures; the website stated that the proceeds would not go toward his 2024 campaign.⁠[3][3][5][5][5]

In May 2024, Zanker reached out to the toy company Hasbro hoping to buy back the license for Trump: The Game, a Monopoly-style Trump board game released in 1989, but Hasbro said it no longer had the rights.⁠[3][3]

In January 2025, days before Trump’s second inauguration, the official Trump memecoin TRUMP launched on the Solana blockchain, themed on the moment after the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt when Trump raised his fist and shouted “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.” Three people familiar with the project said Zanker is one of the key figures behind the memecoin, and he is also listed on the certificate of formation of Fight Fight Fight LLC, an associated entity. The total supply is 1 billion tokens, of which a Trump Organization affiliate and Fight Fight Fight LLC collectively own 80%, subject to a three-year unlocking schedule; Fight Fight Fight LLC is owned by Celebration Cards LLC.⁠[6][7][8][8][8][3][3][8][8][8]

In April 2025, two people familiar with the project said Zanker was leading the development of a Trump-themed crypto game with Monopoly-style gameplay. Zanker’s spokesperson, Kevin Mercuri, confirmed that he was working on a “game” planned for launch in late April but denied that it was similar to Monopoly Go!, calling the reference “hearsay”; Hasbro said it had not licensed its intellectual property to a Trump-affiliated organization.⁠[3][3][3][3][3]

In May 2025, the top 220 holders of the TRUMP memecoin were invited to a dinner at the Trump family’s golf club in Virginia, where Trump himself appeared and spoke briefly. Critics, including Democratic lawmakers, called it a blatant pay-for-access scheme, while a White House spokesperson said the president was working to secure good deals for the American people, not for himself.⁠[6][6][6][6]

In June 2025, the Trump family sent cease-and-desist letters to Zanker’s side, accusing it of using the Trump name without authorization to promote a crypto wallet tied to the TRUMP memecoin; on June 3, Eric TrumpEric TrumpEric Trump is an American businessman and the second son of US President Donald Trump; he has long served as an executive at the family business, the Trump Organization, and ran it with his older brother while his father was president. Since 2024 he has been one of the main public faces of the Trump family’s crypto businesses, co-founding World Liberty Financial and the Bitcoin mining company American Bitcoin.Open the full entry said on X that the project was not authorized by the Trump side. In July, Zanker told CoinDeskCoinDeskCoinDesk is a cryptocurrency media, events, index, and data company founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York. Its businesses include the CoinDesk news website, the annual crypto industry conference Consensus, and the CoinDesk Indices index business. In November 2023, the digital asset exchange Bullish acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, and CoinDesk has since operated as an independent subsidiary of Bullish.Open the full entry there was “no dispute, just a big misunderstanding,” said the two sides were still working together, and teased an upcoming TRUMP mobile game; the wallet plan was later shelved following a dispute with World Liberty FinancialWorld Liberty FinancialWorld Liberty Financial is a crypto finance venture launched in September 2024, co-founded by members of the families of US President Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff, among others; it issues the governance token WLFI and offers the US dollar stablecoin USD1 as its main product. Over the Trump family’s large income from token sales, foreign investors taking stakes, and regulatory approvals, it has faced ongoing conflict-of-interest questions from members of the US Congress and ethics watchdogs; the company and the White House have denied any wrongdoing.Open the full entry.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][7]

Information disclosed on October 8, 2025 showed that Fight Fight Fight LLC, the Zanker-led issuer of the TRUMP memecoin, was raising $200 million to $1 billion for a new digital asset treasury company to accumulate TRUMP and other Trump-linked tokens; people familiar with the matter said the plan was still at an early stage and might not materialize. At the time, TRUMP traded at around $8, far below its all-time high of $44.⁠[7][7][7][7][7]

In December 2025, the official TRUMP memecoin account announced the licensed mobile game Trump Billionaires Club, a 3D board game offering $1 million in TRUMP token rewards, launched by Freedom45Games LLC, which holds a license to use the Trump name, in partnership with the Web3 gaming platform Open Loot. The ultimate owners of Freedom45Games are unclear; a letter from Senator Richard Blumenthal earlier that year had linked Fight Fight Fight LLC to Zanker.⁠[10][10][10][10][10][10][10]

In March 2026, the TRUMP memecoin team announced a conference and luncheon for large holders at Mar-a-Lago in late April, organized by Zanker, with the invitation list expanded to the top 297 holders and the top 29 able to attend a VIP reception with their “favorite president”; within hours of the announcement the coin’s price surged almost 60%. A White House official said Trump’s attendance had not yet been confirmed.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]