On June 16, 2025, the Trump Organization announced the unveiling of T1 Mobile, a "transformational, new cellular service" being launched in the American mobile phone market.
Announced on the 10th anniversary of President Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign launch, Trump Mobile appears to be as unethical a project as it is unserious. While characteristically light on the details, the Trump Mobile announcement immediately raises multiple ethical and supply chain issues that are likely to tarnish the gold-plated phone’s future prospects.
Immediately following the T1 Mobile announcement, critics were quick to observe the irony in the business subsidiary of a sitting US President venturing into the cell phone market. This is especially true at a time when he has unilateral authority to hamper the competition with tariffs; Trump has publicly demanded that cell phone companies, such as Apple, bring their products’ manufacturing to the United States. So how can he get away with such a fools-gold scheme?
Of course, the President maintains that he is not involved in the business ventures of the Trump Organization. This is the same posture he has maintained during other ventures such as the $TRUMP cryptocurrency (launched in January 2025 while the President was announcing a new "crypto-reserve") or the "collectible" Trump gold sneakers (ironically manufactured in China and immediately swamped by counterfeits).
Technically, the US President is correct. "Trump Mobile" is a subsidiary of the Trump Organization, which is, on paper, operated by his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. But even this legal distinction is currently being challenged in the United Kingdom, where higher disclosure requirements are showing that the President is still intimately involved in his businesses’ operations.
Granted, this is also not the first time a US President's son or daughter launched a sudden, highly-profitable new venture. In recent memory, former US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, discovered a new passion for artwork, generating $1.5 million in art sales between 2021 and 2023. Strangely enough, the critical acclaim and demand for Hunter’s artwork appears to have evaporated in January 2025, just as his father left office.
However, the takeaway should not be just that “everybody does it”, and this observation is rather an opportunity to examine how both political parties – and the entire US political class – grift from their base. For the Bidens, it was their elite donor class who sycophantically purchased paintings for over $50,000 a piece. For the Trumps – capitalizing on their Hollywood celebrity and “Make America Great Again” populism – the grift takes on a more kitschy and plebian appeal. But make no mistake, regardless of whether it is the customer or the product itself that are gold-plated, the entire transaction remains an unquestionably tarnished grift.
Notwithstanding its gold-plated appearance, the T1 phone is unlikely to have a glowing future beyond value as a collector’s item (or a paperweight). Despite Trump Mobile’s promises, supply chain issues and cybersecurity challenges will likely prevent the phone from being widely adopted.
It is a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier.Trump Mobile
Fundamentally undermining promises that the phone will be manufactured in the United States, is the fact that the advertised $499 price point is unachievable without importing parts, (or more likely, the entire device) from industry leaders in Asia. This will leave the phone vulnerable to the same market dynamics (some ironically self-inflicted) that are impacting other major cell phone providers.
On the cyber-security front, T1 Mobile cannot compete in the market without major investment in security infrastructure, research, and development. Security at scale is massively expensive, which is one of the key reasons why cell phones and mobile networks are dominated by a few major companies. For example, Apple’s R&D budget in 2024 topped $31 billion. Security comes at a costly pricetag and a timeline, and T1 Mobile’s estimated August 2025 launch leaves little room for trial and error.
This is especially concerning given the phone’s apparent marketing at US military members and their families; the T1 Mobile announcement repeatedly highlights plans to offer free international calling to support troops stationed abroad. At the same time, this market demographic is likely to raise the profile of the network as a target for foreign based cyber threat actors. Considering many of these threats emanate from China and in light of the supply chain issues mentioned above, the T1 Mobile is likely to be a hotbed of cyber-security issues.