A few weeks ago, the Trump Organization revealed its plans to launch a new smartphone and cell carrier, dubbed the T1 and Trump Mobile, respectively.
With the claim of “Made in America” emblazoned on the Trump Mobile website, many were left wondering how the Trumps planned to make a smartphone in the domestic US, when not even smartphone giants like Apple could do the same.
But now the company has changed the script, claiming only that the T1 phone will be “Proudly American.” What does this mean for the American jobs that Trump promised, if they even existed to begin with?
Dubious claims from the start
When the Trump Org, and specifically the U.S. President’s son, Eric Trump, announced the T1 Phone on June 16th, he was quoted in his Fox News interview as saying that “You’re going to have phones that are made right here in the United States of America.”
He then added, “It’s about time we bring products back to our great country.”
While the first statement could violate several FTC regulations surrounding the “Made in America” label, the second turned out to be more true than was initially insinuated.
From what many already predicted would be the case from the start, Trump Mobile does plan to bring products back to our great country. The only catch being that the company plans to do so via orders placed for phones that are designed and manufactured in, you guessed it, China.
The internet finds the T1 in China
Never to be outdone, the cadre of unpaid internet sleuths who live for a day like the announcement of the T1 quickly found out that the phone shared all its specs and design with a phone made by Chinese company Wingtech, the Wingtech REVVL 7 Pro 5G.
The phone — which can be purchased on Alibaba in bulk for as little as $100 per unit — is being “refurbished” with a faux-gold case and Trump’s logo. This is the line we got from a representative we spoke to on the Trump Mobile support hotline, but what exactly they meant by “refurbished” wasn’t elucidated further.
Our assumption is that Trump Mobile plans to order the phones stock from mainland China, and then add the Trump-themed accents on a factory line somewhere in the same country. They’ll then ship them to the U.S (like every other smartphone maker), and sell them here.
The company is hanging on by a thread with its remaining claims that the T1 Phone is somehow a U.S product, now only stating the ordering and support for Trump Mobile are handled by a call center located in St. Louis, Missouri.
Just a more expensive MVNO
If you go to the Trump Mobile website now, the T1 is only being advertised as “designed with American values in mind” and “brought to life right here in the U.S.A.”
This means Trump Mobile is effectively no different from your Mint Mobile or Boost Mobiles of the world. They’ll be running an MVNO cell carrier service that piggybacks off the towers and networks of the big three providers (T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon), and selling compatible discount phones.
The difference is, while Mint and Boost both offer plans as low as $15 per month alongside smartphones that can be free at retail, the only options on Trump Mobile are plans that cost around $50 per month, and a phone that’s $499.
MVNOs are designed to provide low-cost service and devices to those who can’t afford more expensive options like Verizon, or might be unbanked. Instead of doing the same, the Trump Org has decided to jack up the costs, in yet another attempt to profit off his MAGA base that doesn’t know any better about what carrier options are available to them.
So, like everything from Trump Bibles to Trump Coins, just another Trump Scam™ in the books.