We were promised a gold-plated Trump phone
For 11 months, Trump Mobile has been collecting $100 deposits for a Trump phone. No phones have shipped to customers.
On June 16, 2025, President Trump’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, announced the launch of Trump Mobile. The new venture’s flagship product was “a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance“ called the T1 Phone. The pair announced Trump Mobile at Trump Tower in New York City on the 10th anniversary of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign announcement.
According to the press release, the T1 phone would be “proudly designed and built in the United States” and available in August 2025 for $499. Trump’s sons promised that the new service will feature a “best in class customer service team, based in the United States” that “will be available 24 hours a day to assist.”
The Trump Mobile website, which launched the same day, encouraged customers to deposit $100 to “pre-order” the “MADE IN THE USA ‘T1 Phone.” According to the website, the T1 would be available in September 2025.
A spokesman for Trump Mobile told the Wall Street Journal on launch day that “manufacturing for the new phone will be in Alabama, California and Florida.” Appearing on “The Benny Show,” Trump Jr. said the T1 phone was “American hardware, built in America, without the potential of…[a] backdoor into the hardware that some of our adversaries have installed in there.”
Although Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. announced the phone at Trump Tower and promoted it during media appearances, a disclaimer on the website says that neither the Trump Organization nor any of the Trump family are making or selling the products:
Trump Mobile and all its products and services are not designed, developed, manufactured, distributed, or sold by The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals. T1 Mobile LLC uses the Trump name and trademark pursuant to the terms of a limited license agreement, which may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.
This is a typical arrangement for The Trump Organization, which remains wholly owned by President Trump. (Although, technically, the company currently is held by a revocable trust run by Trump Jr., the trust has no legal significance.) Trump earns millions of dollars annually from similar agreements.
A reporter from 404 Media, Joseph Cox, pre-ordered the phone on launch day and was initially charged $64.70. Cox was told he would receive a notification when the phone had been shipped but he had not provided a shipping address. In July, Trump Mobile placed two additional charges on Cox’s credit card, one for $100 and another for $64.70, without explanation. When Cox called the customer service number, the representative could not assist him. A Reuters reporter who called the line in June 2025 was greeted with, “Omega Auto Care, how can I help you?“
In July 2025, Pat O’Brien, an executive working on the Trump Mobile venture, said that the company had “gotten a lot of pre-orders“ but would not disclose how many.
A $499 “MADE IN THE USA” phone was always a fantasy. There is only one phone that is currently assembled in the United States, the Liberty Phone. It costs $2000 and “has specs that would have been more impressive a decade ago.” It includes parts made in China and other Asian countries. The T1 promised high-end specs including Android 15, a 50 megapixel camera, a 6.8 inch screen, and 12 gigabytes of RAM.
By June 25, 2025, the description of the T1 changed dramatically. The phone was no longer promoted as “MADE IN THE USA.” Instead it was “Proudly American” and “designed with American values in mind” — two phrases that mean little.
In October 2025, a call center operator told NBC News that the T1 phone would be shipped on November 13, 2025. That did not happen. The reporter was then told the phone would be available in early December. On December 31, 2025, a reporter from Fortune was told the T1 would be available in “mid to late January.” The Trump Mobile representative told Fortune that the phone had been delayed “due to the government shutdown.”
In January 2026, a Trump Mobile representative said that the company was “in the final stages of certification and field testing” and would ship “sometime in Q1 2026,” a window which closed on March 31.
Then, on April 6, 2026, Trump Mobile updated its terms. According to the new terms, the $100 deposit was not actually a pre-order but “a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale.” Further, the deposit “does not lock in pricing, promotions, service plans, taxes, fees, shipping costs, or other commercial terms.” The terms claim that “[e]stimated ship dates, launch timelines, or anticipated production schedule are non-binding estimates only.” The terms do say customers can receive a refund by making a request to customer service which will “take several business days to process.”
Popular Information called Trump Mobile’s 24-hour customer service number to ask for an updated release date and more information about the refund process. The number played a recorded message saying Trump Mobile was closed and to call back Monday through Friday between 8AM and 5PM Central Standard Time.
As of May 2026, no T1 phones have been sent to customers and the Trump Mobile website currently provides no estimate of when the T1 will be available.
T-Mobile and conflicts of interest
Despite the lengthy delays and the lack of a current timeline, Trump Mobile is showing some signs of life. A ‘T1’ phone from Smart Gadgets Global, LLC — a company whose CEO, Eric Thomas, is a Trump Mobile executive — received FCC clearance in January. That’s necessary before any new phone can be used by consumers.
In February, two Trump Mobile executives showed a Verge reporter a prototype of the phone over video conference. Notably, the phone will not be “Made In the USA,” which was touted by Trump’s sons as its key distinguishing feature. Instead, it will receive “final assembly” in Miami. The Trump Mobile executives would not disclose where the phone is assembled before that final step.
Beyond manufacturing, a critical step for the release of the phone is to get certification from a company that owns a cellular network. In February, the Trump Mobile executives said they were waiting on approval from T-Mobile. Trump Mobile operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) that uses the T-Mobile network. So T-Mobile has to review and approve any new devices that Trump Mobile wants to deploy.
This creates a serious conflict of interest. T-Mobile is regulated by the Trump administration and regularly seeks Trump administration approval for key business activities, including acquisition of additional spectrum. Now, the Trump Organization, which is owned by President Trump, is pitching a phone that depends on T-Mobile’s approval. T-Mobile will feel immense political pressure to clear the device for use on its network.
In July 2025, three Democratic Members of Congress — Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Doris Matsui (D-CA), and Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) — sent a letter to T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert highlighting these concerns. The letter states that T-Mobile’s business relationship with Trump Mobile “creates the appearance of significant conflicts of interest between your company and the executive branch, and likely will raise actual conflicts as more details come to light.” The Members of Congress stated that T-Mobile was in a position “to gain favorable regulatory decisions affecting the company—such as spectrum allocations, merger approvals, or enforcement actions—without any regard as to whether those decisions are in the public interest.”
Why am I not surprised? Fans of the Queens real estate mob boss sundowning as President and his sycophantic administration and their self empretzeling Congress are always ripe for manipulation and abuse. As my mom would say, Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice (and again and again and again since 1980) shame on me.
We were promised a gold plated phone and what we got is a 22ft tall gilded statue at one of his crappy golf courses instead.