On Monday morning, the Trump Organization announced that it would soon offer a new wireless service, Trump Mobile, and a golden, $499 smartphone to go with it. None of it makes much sense.
To be clear, the Trumps would be far from the only celebrities to moonlight as mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, a pretty common practice where small carriers piggyback off of bigger networks under a different name. Even the SmartLess podcast guys have one. But the more you read about Trump’s cell plan and smartphone, the more confused you might get.
While we’re not prepared to provide many answers, we do have questions. So, so many questions. We’ve asked these of Trump Mobile as well but haven’t yet heard back.
What exactly is the T1 Phone?
The Trump Mobile website advertises “the T1 phone” and lists a bunch of specs that sound in line with a low-end Android handset. It’s apparently got 12 GB of RAM, 256 GB of internal storage, USB-C charging, and so on. (The “Key Features” section also lists a “5000mAh long life camera,” which is not a thing. They meant “battery.” Details are hard.) It’s also gold-colored. Very, very gold.
What usually happens in these cases is that a company will put a new name on a so-called white-label Android handset. That’s probably the case here, except for two small points. First, the phone on the Trump Mobile website appears to be a render. The camera is shown with no sensors, the lenses are spaced all crazy, and the volume and power rockers appear in the front view but not the rear view. Also, another section of the website shows what appears to be a render of an iPhone.
If you buy a T1 smartphone today—and yes, you can preorder—what shows up at your house will almost certainly not be what is shown on the site.
The other flag here is that the T1 is “proudly designed and built in the United States,” according to the Trump Mobile website. Which, uh …
Is the T1 smartphone built in the US?
It says so in the press release! In practice, though, that seems unlikely. We’re only aware of one smartphone that advertises itself as wholly USA manufactured: the “Liberty Phone” from Purism. It costs $2,000 and involves a bespoke production process. The idea that the Trump Organization would be able to stand up a domestic smartphone manufacturing system from scratch in time to deliver a $499 smartphone by August—when it apparently will become available—is seemingly impossible.
But don’t just take our word for it. Appearing in an interview Monday with right-wing personality Benny Johnson, Eric Trump clarified that this claim was aspirational. “Eventually all the phones can be built in the United States of America,” he said. Both he and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., cited that the company’s St. Louis–based customer service centers as its primary US tie.
What processor will it have?