The Internet was WRONG: Trump Phone is "Shipping"

In June of last year, I put down a $100 deposit for the Trump T1 phone.Not because I wanted one, but because I figured it would be a pretty funny video when the made -in -America, obvious Photoshop job turned out to be as fake as a degree from Trump University.And yet, somehow, after a nearly year -long roller coaster that's involved multiple changes to the visuals, the specifications, and the timeline, the Trump phone finally has apparently just started shipping.And it turns out, NBC News, of all people, was at the front of the line for a delivery.The whole thing's a bit surreal because just a couple of weeks ago, misinformation about this thing was everywhere with social media users and even some reputable -looking publications claiming that nearly 600 ,000 customers had been ripped off with no refunds, no compensation, and no phone in sight.Source for that?

I made it up!But it's pretty illustrative of the fact that nobody seems to know exactly what's going on.Or almost no one.See, one intrepid reporter at The Verge has been on this story like a dog on a bone, sending relentless requests for comment and publishing weekly updates.

Hi, I'm Dom Preston.I'm one of the news editors at The Verge.Initially, we were just going to kind of hit it once a month, and then we decided, why don't we just be really, really annoying about it, and we will just hit it every week.

We spoke with Dom, we scoured the internet archive, and we braved the flaming garbage fire that used to be a different flaming garbage fire, all in an effort to dispel the misinformation and trace the path that the Trump T1 phone has followed from the $100 deposit to the delivery that I'm expecting any day now.Just like I'm expecting this segue to our sponsor.

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The very moment that it descended its golden escalator, the Trump T1 phone was an absolute For $500, it promised a device entirely made on US soil, featuring a sleek gold aesthetic.And then immediately sparked criticism when it became apparent that the announcement used an obviously Photoshopped image of an iPhone, along with specs that were more in line with a mid -range Android device.Or at least the specs that made any sense were.What exactly is a 5 ,000 milliamp hour long life camera?We were expecting to find out pretty soon.The June 16th press release mentioned an August launch of the phone.

But wait!The website said September?Putting fuel on the fire, the T1's signature promise of being made in America was quickly debunked by electronics manufacturing experts, which forced the language on the website to be replaced with similarisms like American proud design and American hands behind every device.At the same time, the specs went through what would be only their first major change, downgrading the screen size and then decommitting from 12 gigs of RAM to some unlisted amount.Four days later, Trump Mobile shared a different image of the supposed phone.An image that also turned out to be a badly photoshopped iPhone, which was recently taken down.

All of this took place in the first two weeks.And no matter what your political leanings are, all of it seemed a bit off.Unusual for a phone that was supposedly on the verge of being shipped to customers speaking of the verge This isn't Samsung doing this if Samsung comes out with a weird spec sheet and says but trust us We're gonna have a phone in a couple months.

You kind of go.Okay, that's weird, but it's Samsung I guess they will do that.They wouldn't say it if they weren't suredo it.What's weird about the T1 phone from Trott Mobile is it didn't look a lot like they had made a phone.

The Verge's UK news editor, Dom Preston, is only one of many journalists who have investigated what could be called the most politically charged smartphone ever.But he told us why he felt that his outlet had a special role to play in the saga.

and the politics around the tech industry.So it dovetailed nicely for us in that respect.And I think also, you know, we're lucky we're a relatively big team in the industry.So we kind of had the resource to be able to say, hey, let's take someone and just say that they have to give up a day every week to push at this thing.

And push at it they did.The Verge publicly checked in on the Trump phone nearly every week over the next few months, during which time the drama slowed down.but only a little.I mean, there was the time the Trump Mobile team shamelessly ripped off and tweeted yet another fake image of the T1.This time it was a Galaxy S25 Ultra in what was obviously a Spigen case to which Spigen humorously replied, lawsuit incoming.And in the absence of a T1 phone to sell, the site did put up listings for refurbished iPhones and Galaxy phones that were unsurprisingly pretty bad deals.

However, there was a bright spot in the story.The launch of the Trump Mobile cellular service and their The 47 plan seems to have gone mostly without a hitch.Makes sense.If you don't know, MVNOs, or Mobile Virtual Network Operators, lease network capacity from established carriers and then offer things like flexible plans,better customer service, and device support to help differentiate from the big dogs.So TrumpMobile is basically T -Mobile cell service for cheaper, but then cheaper.

not as cheap as Mint Mobile, which is an MVNO that was acquired by T -Mobile back in 2024.There are some unique extras like telehealth and roadside assistance, but Trump Mobile is careful to disclaim that they take no responsibility for the quality of these services.Anyway, the point is Trump Mobile did turn out to be a real functioning wireless service, so Maybe the T1 phone is real too.It's just been hard to find concrete information about it.For example, there was a widely circulated claim that the phone got nearly 600...

a thousand pre -orders, which caused Trump phone related fake news to spawn in like textures in a Bethesda game.But the Verge traced that claim back to an unsubstantiated tweet.Then in early May, the internet exploded with claims about how it was now confirmed that the Trump phone was canceled and that pre -order deposits would never be refunded.The problem with that, not only were those claims not confirmed, the evidence actually pointed the exact opposite way.Social media posts kept referencing Trump Mobile's pre -order terms and conditions, which were updated on April 6th and did contain plenty of vague butt covering about how your deposit does not guarantee that a device will be produced or made available for purchase, and that if they do actually make the phone, it does not lock in your pricing, despite the website's very clear all -caps instructions to lock in your promo pricing now, but, In spite of all that, the terms do state in no uncertain terms that if you want to have your deposit back, you are more than welcome to have it.Whether Trump Mobile will actually honor those promises is of course unclear, but what was already clear before all of that social media nonsense was pretty good evidence that the team

phone did exist and would ship at some point.In February, Dom's relentless email barrage finally secured him an interview with two Trump Mobile executives who showed a physical sample of the T1 phone, a phone that looked quite a bit like a preexisting HTC phone.But we'll talk about that a bit later.After the interview, Dom also found records for a T1 phone that had recently passed both FCC and PTCRB certification, which is not the kind of thing you just...Casually apply for it's not just fight filling and forms applying you've got to get these phones They have to go through a rigorous bank of tests how the signal performs and that kind of thing which is very expensive You wouldn't do that unless it was a product you were actually genuinely trying to put out on some level and put out on some level They are or are they on May 13th a Wednesday Trump mobile finally announced that the t1 phone would start shipping this week They used three whole exclamation marks, which was a little weird, but not nearly as weird as the super obviously AI -generated video of their supposedly real phone.Man, this thing's a doozy.

The back changes color, the phone performs some unconventional physics -defying moves, and how many stripes does the US flag have again?But don't worry, guys, the phone's totally gonna ship this week, which it actually did, just only to one guy.Yep.As of Wednesday, May the 20th, when I'm recording this, the only person or entity that is confirmed to have received a T1 is Brian Cheung at NBC News.He made a first look video verifying the T1's weird number of US flagstripes, as well as talking with iFixit's Sharam Mukhtari about its striking similarity to the HTC U24, a mid -range Android device from 2024.They also discussed the absurdity of the initial made in America claim, given that the phone is clearly made in Taiwan using parts

from all over, you know, like phones are.That claim has since been updated to made in a favored nation with final assembly in Miami, which based on my experience with how phone assembly works, I would guess basically means packing the USB cable into the box if they do anything in Miami at all.Wait, you're not finished editing the Trump phone yet, right?

No, not yet.

Okay, good, because we just found out CNET also posted an unboxing.So that means there are two confirmed Trump phones in existence, unless NBC sent theirs to CNET.Okay, we don't know how many there are, but we should add a little thing.Oh, good, you're filming this, perfect.But the biggest bombshell from this conversation was the confirmation that, tacky yellow paint job aside, the T1 appears to be a normal, if unexceptional, Android phone.which is terrible news for poor Dom.

My biggest fear is we get the phone, we review it, and it's fine.It's just an acceptable Android phone, right?That's the most boring outcome of this whole thing.This has been a year of my life covering this thing, right?And I would like this to end in dramatic fashion.So I want this either to be the worst phone I've ever touched, and I get to write the one -star review being like, you know, this is awful.

Or I want to write the, Guys, this thing's amazing.I can't believe it either.Like, it turns out it's a really good phone.

One way or another, it looks like he's gonna find out soon, TM.Either way, when I eventually get mine, it looks like it's gonna be a golden HTC U24.So, what is that, then?And how does it compare to the initial promise?I'm probably gonna throw Dom's write -up on that in the video description.But, basically, It's a $470 phone from two years ago that does meet most of the initial specs, including even the 12 gigs of RAM that they backtracked on.

So not terrible, but not worth $500 today.But that didn't stop people from buying it.This just isn't it.like yesterday.So I'm sure more information is gonna be coming.But a security flaw was found on the Trump Mobile website and was flagged to YouTubers like Moist Critical and CoffeeZilla.

The latter of which noted that it appears that the database contains about 30 ,000 reservations.So not as many as almost 600 ,000, but still a cool $15 million of revenue if all of them go through with their orders.which finally gets you all caught up on the saga of Trump Mobile and the T1 phone.So far, this has been an even wilder ride than the last time that a rich guy painted a regular phone gold and then tried to pass it off as his own.And I'm sure there is more to come.

Like, it's a weird one, right?In a sense, it's a huge story.It's like, what do you mean the president's family are launching a phone?In another sense, it's just, I don't know, it's this weird, small Android phone that's mid -range, not that expensive.So it's kind of this small niche thing.And we often get comments on the post being like, why are you still doing this?

Like, this doesn't matter.But we also just think it's a bit emblematic of bigger picture stuff going on in the States, going on in the tech industry.And that's kind of why we've stuck at it so hard.

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