Trump Mobile
A Trump-branded phone plan and a gold $499 phone, the T1, sold with $100 deposits from June 2025. The company said phones started shipping in May 2026.
- Launched
- June 16, 2025
- Owned by
- T1 Mobile, which uses the Trump name under a license from the Trump Organization.
On Who He Hired: Donald Trump
The money 1
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$2.7 million
Sales
Preorder deposits implied by leaked Trump Mobile site data reviewed by The Verge: about 27,000 possible preorders at $100 each. The count includes abandoned carts. The money went to T1 Mobile, not Trump. His disclosure for 2025 reports no income, or less than $201, from the T1 Mobile license.
What the labels mean
- ConvictedA criminal jury found them guilty, or they pleaded guilty and were sentenced.
- Found liableA civil jury ruled against them.
- Court ruledA judge ruled against them or their policy.
- Watchdog foundAn inspector general, a congressional investigation, Congress’s auditors at the GAO, or a regulator.
- AdmittedThey acknowledged it, or their own filings and records show it.
- On recordSomething they said or did in public.
- ReportedNews reporting they deny or haven’t confirmed.
- AllegedAccusations from lawsuits, complaints or unnamed sources that haven’t been proven.
Admitted or on record 4
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Admitted
By May 2026, Trump Mobile’s preorder terms said a deposit does not guarantee a phone will be produced.
The terms say the company “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase” and call estimated ship dates and production schedules “non-binding estimates only.” Fortune reported that the change was made quietly.
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On record
Trump Mobile first said the T1 was “designed and built in the United States,” then dropped the claim from its website days after announcing the phone.
At launch the phone was promoted as “proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best.” Democratic lawmakers said the claim was quietly removed in late June 2025. The website later called the design “American-proud” and then said the phone was “designed with American values in mind”; AP said the company gave no further explanation. Eric Trump said “eventually all the phones will be built in the United States,” and in May 2026 CEO Pat O’Brien said the first phones were assembled in the U.S. and future ones would “primarily” use U.S.-made parts.
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On record
On May 13, 2026, Trump Mobile said the T1 would start shipping that week, months after its original August 2025 date.
In a statement to Fortune, CEO Pat O’Brien said “those delays were worth it in our minds as we are delivering an amazing product” and that the company was “incredibly pleased with the interest.” He did not explain the delays or say how many people had preordered. Depositors are charged the rest of the price when the phone ships.
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On record
The Trump Organization licensed the Trump name to Trump Mobile, which announced a $499 gold phone and a $47.45-a-month plan on June 16, 2025.
Trump Mobile is run by T1 Mobile, which uses the Trump name under a trademark license. The fine print says its products are not designed, made or sold by the Trump Organization. The financial terms of the license were not disclosed, and the phone was promised for September. The White House said Trump has been following ethics rules and that all of his assets are in a trust.
Reported and alleged 5
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Reported
An iFixit teardown found the T1 is nearly identical to the HTC U24 Pro, a two-year-old phone made by Taiwan’s HTC with Chinese parts.
NBC News and iFixit reported the match on June 10, 2026. iFixit called the T1 “a phone designed in China, made in China, with the vast majority of parts sourced from China,” and cited The Verge as finding the factory appears to be in Guangdong. iFixit wrote that the claim is that the phone is assembled from about 10 components by a team in Florida. In May 2026, Trump Mobile told Fortune the first phones were assembled in the U.S. Neither article includes a response from Trump Mobile, and iFixit says HTC has been “mostly silent.”
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Reported
The T1 missed its promised August or September 2025 ship date, then its end-of-2025 target.
Customer service told the Financial Times the government shutdown had disrupted shipments and warned of a “strong possibility” the phone would not ship in December, Reuters reported. The FT later reported that a representative blamed the 43-day shutdown and said shipping would start in late January 2026. Trump Mobile kept taking $100 deposits. It did not immediately respond to Reuters, and the Trump Organization did not respond to the AP.
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Reported
The widely repeated claim that 590,000 people paid $59 million in T1 deposits has no confirmed source.
The AP said its stories never contained the number, and the company has never disclosed a deposit total. Coffeezilla said order IDs in leaked data pointed to about 30,000 orders from about 10,000 unique customers, about 5% of the circulating figure, Raw Story reported. Programmer Jonathan Soma counted 27,224 possible preorders in the site’s code, a number that includes abandoned carts. When the phone started shipping, CEO Pat O’Brien did not say how many people had preordered.
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Reported
Trump Mobile’s website exposed the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who had preordered the T1.
YouTubers Coffeezilla and penguinz0 made the flaw public in May 2026 after a researcher couldn’t reach the company. The Guardian reported that the personal information of about 27,000 people who preordered may have been exposed. Spokesperson Chris Walker later told TechCrunch there was no breach of Trump Mobile’s network, systems or infrastructure and linked the exposure to a third-party platform provider. The company told The Guardian it was investigating “with the assistance of independent cybersecurity professionals.”
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Alleged
Eleven Democratic lawmakers asked the FTC to investigate Trump Mobile over its $100 deposits and “Made in USA” claims.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Robert Garcia led the letter, sent the night of January 14, 2026. It asked whether buyers “were cheated by paying $100 deposits for phones that have yet to materialize for customers” and whether the FTC had held discussions “with the president or any of the businesses involved.” The lawmakers asked for a reply by February 15. Trump Mobile and the Trump Organization did not respond to NBC News, and the FTC did not immediately comment.