{"id":17381,"date":"2026-01-07T22:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-mobiles-phone-nowhere-to-be-found\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T22:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T22:21:08","slug":"trump-mobiles-phone-nowhere-to-be-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-mobiles-phone-nowhere-to-be-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Mobile&#8217;s phone nowhere to be found"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/michael-liedtke\">             <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/e4cdd36\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2448x2448+0+96\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F1d%2F6f%2Fc5ba6e07466884dd039ffa00a908%2Fapecphotocredential-mike-liedtke-1.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1767719167000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A golden phone that President Donald Trump&rsquo;s family business promised to release last year remains mysteriously under wraps as the technology industry serves up a glut of <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ces-nvidia-amd-lego-uber-a3e6e4e582ff83a4aa331d1791140369\">new gadgets at CES<\/a><\/span>  in Las Vegas this week.<\/p>\n<p>When the Trump Organization <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-mobile-phone-white-house-business-361455bb3c65593bade7d4edfe4da7e9\">launched a mobile phone service<\/a><\/span>  last June, it was supposed to be a stage setter for a new smartphone bathed in gold with a $500 price tag &mdash; a bargain compared to Apple&rsquo;s latest iPhone models that sell for anywhere from $800 to $1,200. The newly formed Trump Mobile targeted its T1 phone for an August or September release.<\/p>\n<p>What&rsquo;s more, Trump Mobile initially hailed T1 as a device that would be &ldquo;proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But both the T1&rsquo;s shipping date and U.S. manufacturing ambitions gradually began to shift, even as Trump Mobile continues to accept $100 deposits for the device.<\/p>\n<p>Not long after announcing the device, Trump Mobile pivoted from describing it as phone that would be made in the U.S. to framing it <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-cell-phone-mobile-made-america-3e03af70b6a9b161b522cc8055f1b25b\">as a device that would be &ldquo;proudly American.&rdquo;<\/a><\/span>  Trump Mobile&rsquo;s website now touts the T1 as having an &ldquo;American-proud&rdquo; design, with no further explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts believed that the shift stemmed from a recognition that the U.S. lacked the supply chain and other logistics required to make a smartphone for less than $1,000 &mdash; the same hurdles that made it implausible for Apple <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-tariff-iphone-apple-india-f6a31e6d375d5c87b6e80d9cd15e4b71\">to acquiesce to President Trump&rsquo;s demands<\/a><\/span>  that the company move its iPhone manufacturing from China and India.<\/p>\n<p>Later in the summer, Trump Mobile also became more vague about when the T1 would become available, but still indicated it would be delivered to customers who paid the $100 deposit by the end of 2025. Trump Mobile&rsquo;s website continues to list the T1&rsquo;s targeted release date as &ldquo;later this year.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Trump Organization didn&rsquo;t respond to inquiries from The Associated Press about the delays or when the device is now expected to be shipped. The Financial Times recently reported that it was told by a customer representative for Trump Mobile that the phone will be shipped in late January and attributed its delayed release to the 43-day shutdown of the federal government last year.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the reason, the T1&rsquo;s ongoing absence from the smartphone market didn&rsquo;t come as a surprise to International Data Corp. analyst Francisco Jeronimo.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We have always been quite skeptical about this phone,&rdquo; Jeronimo said. &ldquo;They are probably finding that it is harder to build a phone than they thought it would be. Let&rsquo;s see if this thing comes to life or not.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While the T1 has remained in a holding pattern, Trump Mobile has been selling its wireless service for $47.45 per month &mdash; a price tied to Donald Trump&rsquo;s titles as the 47th and 45th President. For customers looking for a smartphone that they can use sooner rather than later, Trump Mobile is also selling refurbished versions of older iPhones and Samsung&rsquo;s Galaxy models at prices ranging from $370 to $630.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Maybe they changed their strategy and figured out they are better off just selling refurbished phones,&rdquo; Jeronimo said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-mobile-t1-golden-phone-delays-1cde1837c829d78d9fdf4cf0751e39a7\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] A golden phone that President Donald Trump&rsquo;s family business promised to release last year remains mysteriously under wraps as the technology industry serves up a glut of new gadgets at CES in Las Vegas this week. When the Trump Organization launched a mobile phone service last June, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}