The Trump Organization is selling a cellphone. Here are all the problems with it
This week, President Donald Trump has been overseeing ramped-up ICE raids in major cities and navigating conflict in the Middle East. His family's business is also trying to sell you a cellphone.
The Trump Organization announced on Monday the launch of a smartphone that doesn't exist and a mediocre phone plan to go with it.
'Our MADE IN THE USA 'T1™ Phone' is available for pre-order now,' reads the website for Trump Mobile, run by a new business called T1 Mobile LLC that's licensing the Trump family name. 'The 'T1™ Phone' will be available in September 2025.' The '47 Plan' will be available for $47.45 a month – a symbolic nod to him being the 45th and 47th president.
Tech and gadget experts say this specific phone, at this specific price point, manufactured entirely on American soil, cannot possibly exist by September of this year.
By entering the cellphone market, the Trump Organization would be competing directly with American-based companies like Apple, and operating in an industry that's heavily regulated by the federal government.
Ethics watchdogs say this, along with the cryptocurrency, watches, shoes, Bibles and other heavily branded products, are examples of the Trump family financially benefiting from the patriarch's role as president, profiting off supporters and potentially foreign governments, and stomping on the traditional norms and guardrails of the presidency in a way that's even more brazen than in his first term.
'It really seems to be just a blatant conflict of interest at every turn,' said Meghan Faulkner, the communications director for Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington.
A 'bad and impossible' phone – and the plan's not much better
In a press release on Trump.com, the president's eldest sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump touted 5G service through three existing major carriers, roadside assistance through Drive America and telehealth services from an unnamed provider — plus free long-distance calling, which has been widely available from all cell service providers for the past 20 years. The service also promises customer service based in America where customers can speak to 'a real person.'
'Hard-working Americans deserve a wireless service that's affordable, reflects their values, and delivers reliable quality they can count on,' reads a quote from Eric Trump.
But the plan isn't particularly affordable when you look at comparable ones on the market: Mint Mobile is $30 a month, and Verizon's Visible is only $25 a month.
The plan doesn't require you to buy a new phone to use it. But it is selling one: The T1 Phone 8002 (gold version). The computer-edited image on the preorder page does not depict a real phone that exists right now. And that's not the only confusing thing, according to David Pierce, editor-at-large for The Verge, who wrote that it looks 'both bad and impossible.'
There's been a lot of talk this year about making smartphones in the United States. Trump threatened a 25% tariff specifically on smartphone companies unless they agreed to move manufacturing stateside.
The reason Apple and other companies don't immediately shift to making smartphones here is pretty simple: They can't. We don't have the factories, we don't have the parts pipeline established, and we don't have the workforce with the skills needed to make a highly sophisticated product like an iPhone.
It's not impossible to build factories and upskill a workforce. But it would take years to get it all set up, and would make phones cost a lot more. Experts told CNBC the price of an iPhone 16 Pro — currently available on Apple's website starting at $999 — made in America would wind up somewhere in the ballpark of $1,500 to $3,500. And CEOs are unlikely to make that kind of major investment when Trump keeps waffling on tariffs.
So how is the Trump Organization going to set that up in three months and sell their phone for $500? Also pretty simple, Pierce said: They aren't.
'The idea that you're going to do it between now and September for $500 is just lunacy,' he said.
What's most likely to happen, he said, is they're going to rebadge an existing phone — take a cheaper model already on the market and rebrand it. A few different tech reporters have tried to figure out which candidate is most likely, based on the specifications listed on the website. A frontrunner appears to be the T-Mobile Revvl 7 5G, which you can buy from Amazon right now for $169.
Is Trump Mobile a conflict of interest for the president?
Technically speaking, President Trump no longer runs the Trump Organization. When he first became president, he bucked historic precedent by refusing to fully divest from his company by selling his assets or placing them in a blind trust, like Jimmy Carter did with his family peanut farm. Instead, he put the Trump Organization in a revocable trust controlled by his oldest sons.
Throughout Trump's political career, the Trump Organization has leveraged the president's name, slogan and office to sell all sorts of things. In his first term, critics and political opponents raised concerns about how foreign governments, corporate interests and bad actors could access and enrich the president via his golf courses, hotels and Mar-A-Lago clubs.
What we've seen so far in his second term is an acceleration of that trend. Today, a foreign government that wouldn't legally be allowed to donate $5 to the Trump campaign can spend an unlimited amount of money buying his cryptocurrency, said Eric Petry, counsel for elections and government programs at the Brennan Center.
'There were unprecedented conflicts of interest in the first Trump term, but everything we're seeing now is well beyond what we saw then,' he said. 'The guardrails are down and we're really seeing an administration unrestrained from norms and tradition.'
Foreign governments probably aren't too interested in a phone plan. This seems to be more of an appeal to his base, who seem hungry to spend money on Trump-branded products despite their history of spotty quality. This phone plan isn't the best or most affordable, this phone isn't the best deal for the money. From a personal finance perspective, there's no reason to engage with Trump Mobile. But it's not about that.
'Trump is president and has fans who will buy whatever has his name on it, and they're going to take advantage of that in every way they possibly can,' Pierce said.
Presidential campaigns selling merch is nothing new. Remember the Jeb Bush guacamole bowl? But these aren't campaign donations, which are tightly regulated with transparency requirements. These sales represent profits for Trump's company and family members.
So that's one potential conflict of interest. Though not the only one: Again, this plan and phone would compete with both American and foreign companies. The telecom industry is regulated by the federal government, and Trump has never been shy about asking for special treatment from officials he appointed. Petry brought up a couple hypothetical scenarios: Could new federal regulations tip the industry's scales in favor of Trump Mobile? Will every federal employee be required to carry a government-purchased T1 Phone 8002 (gold version)?
There aren't a ton of checks on the president's ability to profit from his office and engage in self-dealing. That's because every other president wanted to observe those norms without them having to be enforced, said Faulkner. Congress has the ability to conduct oversight on these things and hold hearings on emoluments and conflicts of interest – a responsibility members from the president's party, which currently controls both houses, have shown no interest in upholding.
So the Trump Organization and affiliated companies can continue their efforts to sell you a cellphone (and a watch, and a pair of shoes, and more or less whatever else they want). From a consumer standpoint, you're probably better off hanging on to your current model.
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