His family business is making an American-made smartphone, which is something that not many companies have dared to do in years.
The president’s oldest sons run the Trump Organization, which announced on Monday that it has sold Donald Trump’s name to a new wireless service and a gold-colored phone. The device is called the T1 and is set to come out in August for $499. The company said in a statement that it was “proudly designed and built in the United States.”
But the patriotic pitch was met with doubt right away, and it wasn’t just because President Trump was trying to make money while he was still in office. A number of people who work in the tech industry questioned whether it would even be possible to sell an American-made phone in just a few months, since most gadgets are made overseas because of the high cost of labor in the U.S., the lack of skilled workers, and the lack of suppliers.
Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, the only company making a smartphone in the U.S. right now, said, “As someone who’s spent over a decade building a secure, privacy-first smartphone, focusing on manufacturing in the U.S., and I can say this with confidence: Making a fully U.S.-made phone isn’t something you can do overnight.” “If the Trump phone promises to cost $499 and be made in the U.S., this announcement seems like classic vaporware.”
Weaver says that making Purism’s U.S.-made phone, the Liberty Phone, costs $650 and sells for $2,000. Along with Purism’s profit, the markup covers some of the extra administrative costs for security-conscious customers who want to check the phone’s supply chain.
On the other hand, the T1 would only cost a small portion of that, which makes people wonder how a device made in the United States could make money.
It was not said by the Trump Organization which company or where the T1 will be made. It only mentioned some technical details, like the fact that it will have a 6.8-inch screen, run on Google’s Android OS, and have both fingerprint and facial recognition for unlocking.
On the phone’s product page, there are also many mistakes and things that are missing. In its description, it said the device had a “5000mAh long life camera” (it should have said “battery,” which was later fixed) and “12GB Ram storage” (RAM is usually called memory because any data stored in RAM is erased when the device is turned off), but it left out an important detail: what kind of chips will be inside it.
An analyst at TechInsights named Wayne Lam said that the information we have about the phone “doesn’t suggest it is a competitive phone design” when compared to more high-end phones like Apple’s iPhone. He said that the T1’s specs were “underwhelming.”
Making phones in the U.S., at least by big companies, is pretty much seen as a lost cause. These days, almost all of their devices and parts are made in Asia. Executives say that making things in the U.S. costs too much and there aren’t enough skilled workers and suppliers to finish the job.
Setting up a factory to make a U.S.-made phone could take years, not just a few months, even if a company planned to try their luck. It takes time for a business to find suppliers, hire workers, and set up a place to make things.
Eric Trump, Donald Trump’s son, may have given away a clue about how the T1 will get around the issue. In an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson on The Benny Show, he said that the phone might be made overseas at first. Eric said, “One day, all phones will be made in the United States of America.” “We need to start making things again.”
It’s clear that President Trump wants to bring U.S. manufacturing back home. His “Liberation Day” tariffs in April and attacks on Apple for making iPhones in Asia show this. In theory, he would charge import taxes on any T1 phones or parts that were brought into the country.
Along with the phone, Trump will also brand a wireless service called Trump Mobile. The service will cost $47.45 a month and offer up to 20 GB of data. It’s not a secret that the price is a dig at his two terms as president.
However, the Trump Organization did not say who it is working with on the wireless service or device. However, the website’s terms of service do mention that the service is powered by Liberty Mobile Wireless, which is a “virtual” carrier that uses other companies’ networks. The Trump Organization said that the three biggest wireless providers in the country will make the service available.
Ross Rubin, an analyst at Reticle Research, said that Trump Mobile’s cell phone service costs more than similar plans from T-Mobile’s Metro and Verizon’s Total, as well as cheaper plans from Boost Mobile. He also said that some of those carriers will give free phones to people who sign up.
Weaver of Purism brought up one problem with the Trump Organization’s claim that a product is made in the United States. There are strict rules from the Federal Trade Commission about when companies can and can’t say that a product is made in the United States. Weaver said, “They can’t keep their promise unless they worked for years to build a secure onshore or nearshore fab operation that no one knew about.”
