Donald Trump‘s sons unveiled the Trump Mobile T1 phone this summer, which drew roaring applause. The phone was going to have an American flag on it and a promise that it was made in the USA. A gold phone branded with the Trump name would sell like hot cakes, to say the least; his MAGA base was ready. Trump Mobile designed the phone to be politically delicious!
But months later, the phone that was supposed to hit the market in August has become a myth.
What NBC News did was what any curious consumer would do: they placed a $100 deposit in August 2025 to see whether the $499 Trump Mobile device was real. They confirmed that they received an email receipt, but then there was radio silence.
Then the outlet tried to follow up with customer service, but it didn’t reveal much except for delays. At first, this Trump Mobile marvel was supposed to be out in mid-November. Then it was “early December.” One operator even cited the government shutdown without clarifying how the government’s executive branch and smartphone assembly lines were related.
The Trump Mobile phone is nowhere to be found after months of delay. Trump Mobile has posted conflicting photos of the phone and scrubbed mention of its “Made in the USA” promise.https://t.co/q9EKBb04JH pic.twitter.com/IQF4VJxHeQ
— 🌏PEACE✌️☮️🕊♻️☘️ (@PeaceOutPeaceIn) November 24, 2025
Meanwhile, Trump Mobile’s social media handles didn’t help. A late-summer post, “The wait is almost over!” had a product photo. But the design didn’t match the OG renders. The new phone looked like a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra—so much so that Spigen (a phone case company) threatened to sue because it appeared to be a doctored photo of a Samsung device in one of its cases.
Then there was the “Made in the USA” claim. In early marketing materials, this phrase was the selling point. But this fall, the wording was replaced with “Brought to life right here in the USA,” with vague promises like there would be “American hands behind every device.” What does that mean? Would it be assembled here, or would someone in Ohio be taping the shipping label?
Industry experts aren’t surprised at all. Francisco Jeronimo of IDC told CNBC there was “no way” the phone could have been built or even entirely sourced domestically for the announced price point. Todd Weaver (whose company spent six years building the only U.S.-made phone currently on the market) confirmed that making such smartphones is logistically impossible. Even Eric Trump hinted that the initial batch might not be made in America. But marketing wanted buyers to think otherwise, though.
MAGA fans got taken to the cleaners, but at least Eric became a billionaire.$TRUMP #PumpAndDump https://t.co/JYovvHzuYV pic.twitter.com/IJzc7GvtTX
— Kim (@kim) November 24, 2025
As of now, would-be Trump Phone owners can still place $100 deposits for a device that will ship “later this year.” In the meantime, Trump Mobile’s storefront is pushing refurbished iPhones and Samsung devices, the very tech giants Donald Trump’s messaging rails against—except now they’re stamped and insist that they, too, are “brought to life right here in the USA.”
Do you think the Trump Mobile Gold T1 will ever ship?
