The Trump Phone Will Cost You $499. This Is What You Get and What We Don't Know Yet
The Trump Organization now has a wireless business, including a mobile phone plan and a $499 gold-hued phone.
On Monday, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of US President Donald Trump, announced a new wireless venture centered on a service called Trump Mobile. According to the venture's website, a wireless plan is available for $47.45 a month with unlimited talk, text and data and no long-term contract. The price of the service is a callout to Donald Trump's two terms as president: 47 for his current presidency and 45 for his previous one, from 2017 to 2021. Those interested can use their own phone and number.
Trump Mobile is offering that $499 phone, called the T1, for preorder ahead of planned availability in September. It comes with a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen and runs the Android 15 operating system.
The Trump family licensed its name to the service.
The idea for a wireless service promoted around a celebrity or a brand may be an emerging trend. Just a week before the Trump Organization announcement, the popular SmartLess podcast launched its own service. The podcast is hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes.
Will the phone be made in the US or elsewhere?
In a statement about the service and new phone, the Trump Organization says it will offer customer support through call centers based in the US. The T1 phone is described as "designed and built in the United States."
The statement doesn't offer any additional details about sourcing for the phone's manufacturing, but given supply chain realities, it's likely that at least some components in the phone would come from another country, such as China. The Trump administration has been focused on having more manufacturing take place in the US, including pushing Apple to build iPhones here.
Francisco Jeronimo, vice president at International Data Corp., told CNBC on Tuesday that the phone could not be assembled or completely manufactured in the US. "That is completely impossible," he said.
Eric Trump, the president's younger son, said on Tuesday that the company will build phones in the US, but not right away.
"Eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America," he said in an interview cited by Wired magazine.
Trump Mobile will offer service through AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
Trump Mobile
President Trump has said he will impose a 25% tariff on all smartphones not made in the US, which would seem to include his own family's proposed phone.
In addition to voice and data service, the Trump Mobile plan includes 24/7 roadside assistance through Drive America, telehealth and mental health support services, no credit check and free international calling to 100 countries, "including many with American military bases to help honor the families who are bravely serving in our military abroad."
The wireless plan
Trump Mobile says the service will run using the networks of the three major US wireless carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. To be more precise, it's powered by Liberty Wireless Mobile, an MVNO -- mobile virtual network operators don't own the infrastructure but instead lease it from the big wireless providers and then resell it in their own packages.
As CNET's Patrick Holland and Jeff Carlson point out, there are hundreds of US-based MVNOs for you to choose from, including Liberty Wireless, which offers its own $40-a-month plan. Right now, they say, there are still "too many unknowns" about the Trump Mobile plan to allow for a definitive assessment. Check out their breakdown of how Trump Mobile compares to some of the top alternatives.
Some details are confusing
CNET senior editor Mike Sorrentino noted that the site for the Trump phone went live with numerous errors and omissions.
It doesn't list a processor, even under the headline marked "processor." The storage and memory specs are mixed up, listing the RAM as 12GB of storage and the memory as 256GB of internal storage. The site mentions a "punch-hole AMOLED display," which Sorrentino notes does not exist, using the term to refer to the space for the front-facing camera. Two separate sizes are given for the phone display. The site references a "5,000mAh long life camera," but it appears to mean the battery. The battery-camera confusion has been corrected.
Meanwhile, the press release for the phone says it will be released in August, but the website says September.
Gulf of Mexico label on the map
The Trump Mobile site launched with a map showing its coverage area, but that map was pulled after people online noticed that the map used the name Gulf of Mexico for the body of water Trump calls the Gulf of America.
Reuters reviewed the website code and noted that the site seemed to be using T-Mobile's network data for the coverage map, and that company uses the Gulf of Mexico name.
The Trump Mobile phone plan is priced at $47.45 a month, because Donald Trump was both the 45th and 47th president.
Trump Mobile
Trump announced the Gulf of America name change on his Inauguration Day in January. He also changed the name of the Alaskan mountain Denali to Mount McKinley. The Associated Press has said it will not use the Gulf of America name for the body of water.
A phone with a telehealth plan?
The press release promises the phone plan comes with "telehealth services, including virtual medical care, mental health support, and easy ordering and delivery for prescription medications."
Don Hendrickson, a spokesperson for Trump Mobile, confirmed at the launch, saying the telehealth services were all included in the plan. As the New York Times notes, it's not clear how a $47-a-month phone plan could afford to cover remote doctor visits and medication.
The Trump Mobile site says the telehealth program will require users to sign up with a third-party provider, Doctegrity.
The celebrity phone trend
The new offerings from Trump Mobile may receive a lot of publicity due to the president's high profile and social media presence, but one wireless executive said they're unlikely to create a major disruption for other wireless carriers.
"The US wireless market is over $300 billion a year, and it is not a zero-sum game. New entrants like Trump Mobile or SmartLess typically operate as mobile virtual network operators using infrastructure from the big three," said US Mobile CEO Ahmed Khattak. Khattak's company has served a million wireless customers and has ranked high among the wireless phone plans CNET has rated.
"They might carve out a niche based on branding or audience loyalty, but that doesn't fundamentally change the economics or scale advantages of larger MVNOs or the big three carriers," he says.
Khattak doesn't believe the new Trump endeavor is a conflict of interest or presents a regulatory conflict because the president has the authority to appoint FCC commissioners.
"The FCC is an independent agency," he says. "Commissioners are appointed by the president but confirmed by the Senate, and the FCC does not get involved in MVNO business agreements or commercial launches."
The US Mobile CEO also doesn't believe that the new company represents a new wave of celebrity wireless endorsements.
"If anything, that era is behind us," he says. "Mint Mobile is often seen as a Ryan Reynolds story, but the reality is that its parent company, Ultra Mobile, was already the fastest-growing private company in America long before he joined."
Khattak added: "Most celebrity MVNOs do not last because wireless is an operationally intense business with tight margins. This is not the next celebrity tequila or podcast trend."
From Trump phones to Instant Pots, snow globes
The president did not appear for the Monday announcement at New York's Trump Tower; his sons headed up publicity for the unveiling.
The Trump Organization is a holding company for the president's business interests. According to Reuters, the president has reported $600 million worth of income from various deals and projects, including crypto coins, a sector of business his administration has been bullish on.
Recently, the news site Semafor reported that kitchen appliance company Instant Pot will offer a "45/47 Collaboration," marking items with those numbers and the president's "Make America Great Again" slogan. Semafor also reported that tableware and china company Lenox has proposed a line of Trump-related product, including snow globes and dinnerware with the president's face.
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