A (Palmer) Luckey’s Tale: Donald Trump, Chrono Trigger, and 100 grand

Here’s probably the first time someone had to write “Chrono Trigger” and “Donald Trump” in the same sentence.

A Californian limited-liability corporation called Wings of Time gave $100,000 to President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund in January, according to official records (and first reported by MotherJones and Washington Post reports). Super Nintendo fans may remember that Wings of Time was also the name of the time-traveling machine in the Square role-playing game Chrono Trigger. While that’s an odd piece of video game-related trivia on its own, the source of that money is possibly even more curious.

Palmer Luckey, who founded Oculus VR before Facebook acquired it for $2 billion in 2014, owns a company called Luckey Arms LLC in a building in Los Angeles. That building is also the registered address for Fiendlord’s Keep LLC. Fiendlord’s Keep is also the name of a medieval castle from Chrono Trigger. According to California business records, that sole officer of Fiendlord’s Keep is a person called “Palmer Luckey,” and that company is also the manager of Wings of Time.

I’ve reached out to Palmer Luckey to ask if he owns a pair of companies named after vehicles and settings from Chrono Trigger, and I also asked if those entities donated $100,000 to the Trump inauguration.

This revelation comes a matter of weeks after Facebook confirmed that Luckey had left the company and Oculus VR. And that split came after a report detailed Luckey’s work with a group of trolls called Nimble America who promised to bring online “shitposting” into the real-world U.S. presidential campaign through billboards. Luckey was bankrolling that group. After that, Luckey went silent as a public-facing representative of Oculus, and he even stopped posting on Reddit and Twitter … well, until he posted this today:

Nobody can stop me from reposting the same Sword Art Online pictures every year for the next 50 years! https://t.co/1iMO6DMbwB

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) April 19, 2017

Luckey has also seen and responded to the Washington Post story. He is upset by what he claims is the reporter not providing ample time for him or his lawyers to respond.

@drewharwell >be WashPo
>accuse corp of being shell company
>Send email, wait 7 minute
>"Messages left with Luckey and his attorney were not returned"

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) April 19, 2017

And while Luckey did not confirm in his posts on Twitter that he gave the $100,000 to the Trump inauguration, he did provide a reason for doing so.

@oliverkri Probably the same reason companies like Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Coca-Cola, etc do!

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) April 19, 2017

I’ll update this story with any new information or comment from Luckey when it becomes available.