The Trump Organization jumped into the smartphone business on June 16, announcing a $499 gold-hued phone and a mobile phone plan, proclaiming on the Trump Mobile website that device would be “designed and built in the United States.” It’s a claim that many experts were skeptical about. Now, just over a week later, the site has dropped that phrasing.
Instead, new wording on Trump Mobile cites “American hands” and “American values” but steers clear of claiming the phone, called the T1, will be made in the US.
The original statement remains unchanged on Trump.com, without offering any additional details.
But given supply chain realities, it was clear from the start that at least some components in the phone would have to come from another country, such as China. The Trump administration has been focused on having more manufacturing take place in the US, including pushing Apple to build iPhones here.
A representative for Trump Mobile did not respond to a request for comment.
A banner on Trump Mobile.com that said “MADE IN THE USA” is now gone. But other statements proclaim the phone is “proudly American” as well as “designed with American values in mind.” A headline reads, “American-Proud Design.”
“The T1SM Phone isn’t just powerful — it’s brought to life right here in the USA. With American hands behind every device,” the site says. It’s not explained what this specifically means with regard to the phone’s manufacturing.
Expert: ‘Completely impossible’ to fully make a phone in US
Francisco Jeronimo, vice president at International Data Corp., last week told CNBC that the phone could not be assembled or completely manufactured in the US. “That is completely impossible,” he said.
Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, said at the time that the company would build phones in the US, but not right away.
“Eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America,” he said in an interview cited by Wired magazine.
Trump Mobile will offer service through AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
Meanwhile, the Trump phone has put another phone, the Liberty Phone made by independent phone maker Purism, in the spotlight. Purism founder Todd Weaver last week told CNET that the Liberty Phone is sold with the label “Made in USA Electronics,” a qualified claim under the rules of the Federal Trade Commission. Weaver expressed doubt that the Trump T1 phone will meet the same standards.
President Trump has said he will impose a 25% tariff on all smartphones not made in the US, which would seem to include his own family’s proposed phone.
Some details are confusing
CNET Senior Editor Mike Sorrentino noted that the site for the Trump phone went live with numerous errors and omissions.
It doesn’t list a processor. The storage and memory specs are mixed up, listing the RAM as 12GB of storage and the memory as 256GB of internal storage. The site mentions a “punch-hole AMOLED display,” which Sorrentino notes does not exist, using the term to refer to the space for the front-facing camera. Two separate sizes are given for the phone display. The site references a “5,000mAh long life camera,” but it appears to mean the battery. The battery-camera confusion has been corrected.
Meanwhile, the press release for the phone says it will be released in August, but the website originally said September. Now, that too has been changed to “later this year.”
Gulf of Mexico label on the map
The Trump Mobile site launched with a map showing its coverage area, but that map was pulled after people online noticed that the map used the name Gulf of Mexico for the body of water Trump calls the Gulf of America.
Reuters reviewed the website code and noted that the site seemed to be using T-Mobile’s network data for the coverage map, and that company uses the Gulf of Mexico name.
The Trump Mobile phone plan is priced at $47.45 a month, because Donald Trump was both the 45th and 47th president.
Trump announced the Gulf of America name change on his Inauguration Day in January. He also changed the name of the Alaskan mountain Denali to Mount McKinley. The Associated Press has said it will not use the Gulf of America name for the body of water.
A phone with a telehealth plan?
The press release promises the phone plan comes with “telehealth services, including virtual medical care, mental health support, and easy ordering and delivery for prescription medications.”
Don Hendrickson, a spokesperson for Trump Mobile, confirmed at the launch that telehealth services were included in the plan. As The New York Times notes, it’s not clear how a $47-a-month phone plan could afford to cover remote doctor visits and medication.
The Trump Mobile site says the telehealth program will require users to sign up with a third-party provider, Doctegrity.
The celebrity phone trend
The new offerings from Trump Mobile may receive a lot of publicity due to the president’s high profile and social media presence, but one wireless executive said they’re unlikely to create a major disruption for other wireless carriers.
“The US wireless market is over $300 billion a year, and it is not a zero-sum game. New entrants like Trump Mobile or SmartLess typically operate as mobile virtual network operators using infrastructure from the big three,” said US Mobile CEO Ahmed Khattak. Khattak’s company has served a million wireless customers and has ranked high among the wireless phone plans CNET has rated.
“They might carve out a niche based on branding or audience loyalty, but that doesn’t fundamentally change the economics or scale advantages of larger MVNOs or the big three carriers,” he says.
Khattak doesn’t believe the new Trump endeavor is a conflict of interest or presents a regulatory conflict because the president has the authority to appoint FCC commissioners.
“The FCC is an independent agency,” he says. “Commissioners are appointed by the president but confirmed by the Senate, and the FCC does not get involved in MVNO business agreements or commercial launches.”
The US Mobile CEO also doesn’t believe that the new company represents a new wave of celebrity wireless endorsements.
“If anything, that era is behind us,” he says. “Mint Mobile is often seen as a Ryan Reynolds story, but the reality is that its parent company, Ultra Mobile, was already the fastest-growing private company in America long before he joined.”
Khattak added: “Most celebrity MVNOs do not last because wireless is an operationally intense business with tight margins. This is not the next celebrity tequila or podcast trend.”
From Trump phones to Instant Pots, snow globes
The Trump Organization is a holding company for the president’s business interests. According to Reuters, the president has reported $600 million worth of income from various deals and projects, including crypto coins, a sector of business his administration has been bullish on.
Recently, the news site Semafor reported that kitchen appliance company Instant Pot will offer a “45/47 Collaboration,” marking items with those numbers and the president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Semafor also reported that tableware and china company Lenox has proposed a line of Trump-related product, including snow globes and dinnerware with the president’s face.
