We’re still talking about the Trump phone

The Trump phone was never a serious phone. Not when it was announced last June, in dodgy renders and with an incoherent spec sheet. Nor when Trump Mobile admitted — just two weeks later — that it wouldn’t be made in the US. Not even when the company revealed the final phone, first to me over a video call in February and then to the world in April through a short commercial with the slick sheen of AI.

It’s now on sale for $499, past the days of its tenuous, ever-shifting release dates. A few buyers even have the phone, The Verge among them, though more still seem not to.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. One year on, our phones have finally arrived.

12 months, 16 days, 21 hours, and 54 minutes after I first heard about Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone 8002 (gold version), I’m finally holding one in my own hands.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We still don’t have the phones we preordered yet, but this week the T1 hit open sale, no deposit required.

Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone is now available for anyone to buy directly. The phone has previously trickled out to a small number of preorder customers — though The Verge is still waiting for both of its handsets — but now you can claim your own without having to place a $100 deposit.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We don’t have the phones we preordered yet, but this week we received unexpected news from Trump Mobile’s media relations manager.

If you’ve been following my reporting on the Trump phone, you’ll know that Trump Mobile doesn’t exactly keep open lines of communication with the media. That doesn’t look to be changing, with the company no longer working with its long-term media relations firm.

From the day it was announced, on June 16th, 2025, the Trump phone sounded ridiculous. The T1 Phone 8002 (gold version), as it was officially called, was a combination of contradictory specs, product images that were clearly not photographs of a real phone, and the worrying requirement of a $100 deposit to secure a preorder of a $499 phone with no release date. But none of Trump Mobile’s outlandish announcements were as bold as the claim that the phone would be “designed and built in the United States.”

The US has next to no phone manufacturing infrastructure, few engineers with the required expertise, and little of the affordable, flexible mass labor that makes building electronics possible at scale in China, India, and across southeast Asia. Only one company currently makes a phone in the US, the Purism Liberty Phone, and it costs $1,999. The idea that Trump Mobile could build a phone for a quarter of the price in three months or less sounded impossible.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. We don’t have the phones we preordered yet, but this week included an unexpected in-person encounter with the T1.

You see a lot of interesting phones when you’re among tech journalists.

After getting its hands on a Trump phone and tearing it apart, iFixit has confirmed what I first reported back in February: the T1 Phone is an almost exact duplicate of the HTC U24 Pro.

iFixit partnered with NBC to get hold of the network’s media sample of the Trump phone, along with a U24 Pro. They ran the phones through a CT scanner, tore them down to parts, and even put them back together into a functional Frankenstein phone with the U24 Pro’s board inside the T1 Phone’s chassis, confirming along the way that the two phones are functionally identical.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. This week, I’m investigating where it might have been built — and why it definitely wasn’t the US.

Almost a year after its announcement, the Trump phone has “launched.” A few journalists and YouTubers have received early samples of the phone, though there’s still little evidence that any regular buyers have gotten theirs. If and when anyone else gets it, they’ll discover an open secret: Just like Trump’s “God Bless the USA” bible, it’s not really made in the USA.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. As the phone’s supposed launch continues, we noticed its website may be violating FTC rules.

When the Trump phone was first announced last June, it was proudly promised to be made in America. Trump Mobile quickly walked back that claim, and now promises only that the T1 is “assembled” in the US. Except… it didn’t walk it back everywhere, with one website page still promising that the phone is “American-made,” in likely violation of Federal Trade Commission rules.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. It’s now been more than a week since Trump Mobile announced that phones would “start shipping this week.”

Last week Trump Mobile announced that the T1 Phone was ready to start shipping by the end of the week. Almost two weeks later, there’s no sign that’s actually happened — and the company still hasn’t shipped either of the two phones ordered by The Verge.

Just as the T1 Phone is seemingly on the verge of release, Trump Mobile has been accused of insecurely storing customer data, leaving addresses and phone numbers vulnerable. The alleged leak has also revealed how many T1 Phone orders were apparently placed, and it’s far fewer than viral figures have claimed.

YouTuber Coffeezilla was the first to report the apparent leak on his second channel, voidzilla, having been tipped off by an anonymous person who discovered the “vulnerability” in the Trump Mobile website. The hacker says they’re able to both place fake orders for the phone and “scrape and search the entire pre-order database,” accessing emails, phone numbers, and mailing addresses, though not credit card details. Coffeezilla confirmed that his details were present in the database, as did fellow YouTuber penguinz0.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. This week, despite our best hopes, we still don’t have our phone — but we do have some fresh doubts about the company’s patriotic credentials.

This has been a momentous few days for Trump Mobile, in which it defied the haters by announcing that its phones will be shipping to buyers this very week. Not that there’s any sign the company has actually done that, but I digress. Because what I really want to talk about today is the American flag.

The Trump phone may finally be here: Trump Mobile claims that the phone will begin shipping to buyers this week. The announcement comes as reports have gone viral this week alleging that preorders for the phone have been canceled.

Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien first confirmed the release plans to USA Today, telling the outlet that all preorders will be fulfilled within the next few weeks. The company later confirmed the news on its social media accounts, using a very normal number of exclamation marks in the process.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. This week, Trump Mobile has been trumped.

It’s been another long week without the Trump phone, but it’s no longer the only nonexistent phone I have to worry about. Robot vacuum manufacturer Dreame has announced its own set of phones that are unlikely to ever launch, and one of them takes the Trump phone playbook and amps it up to 11.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. This time we’ve discovered a little more evidence that the phone is on its way to a release.

Trump Mobile’s T1 Phone has just passed another milestone on its slow road to release. The phone has received the little-known PTCRB certification, a first step toward being certified to work on major networks and be issued with IMEI numbers.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. We’re back to being ignored, and the phone seems no closer to an actual launch.

Last week Trump Mobile overhauled its website, in the process officially revealing the updated design of its T1 Phone, with a new spec sheet to match. You’d be forgiven for thinking that means it’s ready to release, but make no mistake: beyond a possible FCC authorization and a single phone someone showed me over a video call, there’s still no proof the Trump phone is ever going to launch.

Trump Mobile has overhauled its website, introducing a new logo, new design language, and a new version of the T1 Phone. The redesigned phone is the same one that two company executives showed me over a video call two months ago, seemingly now confirmed to be the final design — but there’s still no word on when it will arrive.

The phone is still gold, of course, with an American flag design on the rear that’s black in some images, but white in others, alongside a “Trump Mobile” wordmark. I was shown a similar design but with an enormous “T1” logo across the whole of the rear, but I was told that would be removed, and it’s nowhere to be seen on the current design. There’s a triple rear camera with the lenses spaced a little oddly (and another “Trump Mobile” logo), and a curved edge to the phone’s body with a headphone jack at the top. It still looks quite a lot like the HTC U24 Pro.

Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. We’ve reached out, as usual, to ask about the Trump phone’s whereabouts. We’re back to being ignored, but the company is showing signs of life.

It’s been nine months since Trump Mobile announced itself, seven months since the company updated any of its social media profiles, and two months since anyone replied to my emails. Based on that, you might think that everyone involved had given up on the whole idea, but this week we saw curious signs of life: a new trademark application.