When Trump Mobile was announced in June 2025, it arrived with plenty of spectacle. The Trump Organization unveiled the new wireless carrier alongside a headline-grabbing device: the T1 smartphone, a gold-coloured phone priced at $499 and pitched as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung.
At launch, the promise was clear. Trump Mobile said the T1 would be designed and built in the United States, with a release window set for August to September 2025. Customers were asked to place a $100 deposit, with assurances that the phone would ship before the end of the year.
Those assurances didn't last long. Within weeks of the announcement, Trump Mobile began quietly walking back its manufacturing claims. “Made in the USA” was replaced with “proudly American,” and later “American-proud design,” without any explanation of where the phone would actually be produced. Analysts quickly pointed out that the U.S. lacks the supply chain needed to manufacture a sub-$1,000 smartphone at scale, a challenge that has kept even Apple’s iPhone production overseas.
As questions around manufacturing grew, the launch timeline also started to slip. Specific release dates disappeared from Trump Mobile’s website, replaced by vague language promising delivery by the end of 2025. That deadline has now passed, yet the site still lists the T1 as coming “later this year.”
According to reporting from the Associated Press and the Financial Times, more than 590,000 people placed deposits, totalling roughly $59 million. With no phones delivered and little direct communication from the company, frustration spread.
Some customers requested refunds, while others openly questioned whether the project would ever materialise. Trump Mobile hasn't publicly clarified its refund policy or confirmed whether the T1 has been delayed indefinitely or quietly shelved.
Kelechi Edeh
The only concrete update has come indirectly. A Financial Times report cited a customer who said Trump Mobile support blamed the delay on a 43-day U.S. government shutdown and suggested the phone would ship in late January 2026. The Trump Organization declined to comment.
While the flagship device remains undelivered, Trump Mobile itself hasn't gone quiet. The service continues to offer a $47.45-per-month wireless plan and has shifted its focus to selling refurbished iPhones and Samsung Galaxy devices, priced between $370 and $630. Given the original marketing around the T1, the pivot toward resold hardware suggests the smartphone was never the core of the business.
At this point, the Trump phone feels less like a delayed product and more like a footnote. The service exists, refurbished phones are shipping, and deposits remain unreturned, while the promised gold T1 device is still nowhere to be found. Even if it does ship later this month, many early customers may already be done waiting.
