President Donald Trump’s family is entering the smartphone market with a new Trump-branded service called Trump Mobile, and a branded smartphone called T1. Trump Mobile would reportedly be operating using existing wireless networks and American-made hardware.
According to a Bloomberg report, the launch was announced by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in New York on Monday, on the day of the tenth anniversary of Donald Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement. “We’ve partnered with some of the greatest people in the industry to make sure that real Americans get true value from their mobile carriers,” Trump Jr. said. He and Eric Trump are executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization, according to the report.
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An official statement says that Trump mobile makes use of the network infrastructure of all three major U.S. carriers — T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. The Trump family is also launching a branded smartphone called the T1, described as a “sleek gold” model, manufactured in the U.S. and priced at $499.
Trump Mobile seems to be part of a broader trend of businesses aligning with Trump and his conservative base. Another notable instance of this is the social media platform Truth Social, which Trump launched in 2022. A mobile company in particular would be relevant to the Trump administration’s trade agenda. Trump had recently threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Apple if the company manufactured its products overseas. He also signaled he would go after other device makers, like Samsung for similar reasons.
It is unclear how Trump Mobile would source hardware required for this new device from within the U.S. An industry analyst told the BBC it would be “virtually impossible” for the gold-colored handset to be built in the United States.
Eric Trump said on “The Benny Show” podcast on Monday that “eventually” all the phones can be built within the United States of America, suggesting that the phones released in August might not be entirely American-made. “They don’t even have a working prototype. It’s extremely unlikely,” said Professor Tinglong Dai, who teaches operations management at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School. “You would have to have a miracle. You would need to have economies of scale. You would need to have sustainable demand for this kind of product.”
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Experts also claim this phone was likely designed and manufactured by a Chinese firm. According to Francisco Jeronimo, vice president at International Data Corporation, there is “no way the phone was designed from scratch and there is no way it is going to be assembled in the U.S. or completely manufactured in the U.S.” Jeronimo suggests the phone would likely be produced by a Chinese original device manufacturer (ODM) — a type of company that designs and manufactures products based on the specifications of another firm.
The flagship Trump Mobile offering, dubbed the 47 Plan, will offer unlimited talk and text with 20 gigabytes of high-speed internet for $47.45 a month. Subscribers will also receive benefits such as telemedicine access, roadside assistance through Drive America, and protection services for devices, according to the announcement.