Made in the USA: does the ‘Trump Phone’ really have nothing made in China?
Donald Trump has, sort of, made a mobile phone. Here’s what we know about it.
Once again, US President Donald Trump is showing us that he was right all along—and we were wrong to doubt him. Why are you smirking? I’m serious.
Okay, of course I’m being facetious. This is just me telling you (again) that Donald Trump has announced something ludicrous and expects us to believe it because he is the smartest, savviest, most respected face on the planet. Also, he’s really tall.
Anyway, the Trump Organization recently announced that they plan to manufacture and release a new golden cell phone. Called the Trump T1 8002, it will show us all - and China - that high-end products can be ‘made in the USA’.
Trump: A little secret… people have tried to come up with gold paint that would look like gold. You’ve never been able to match gold with gold paint. That’s why it’s gold pic.twitter.com/xvno8TnSw7
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 19, 2025
Doubts over Trump’s T1 origins
Out of the blue, a very strange website — featuring stock photos of a phone-less man standing next to a car, and a woman holding something resembling an iPhone 16 — was launched, giving us a hint of what to expect from this supposedly ‘made in the USA’ device.
It’s safe to say we didn’t see this coming, which is why some experts remain unconvinced. “There is no way the phone was designed from scratch, and there is no way it will be assembled or completely manufactured in the U.S. That is completely impossible,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice president at International Data Corp., told CNBC.
“Despite being advertised as an American-made phone, it is likely that this device will be initially produced by a Chinese ODM,” Blake Przesmicki, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, said on Monday via CNBC.
TechRadar’s Lance Ulanoff agreed with the skepticism, tweeting: “There’s just one company that builds phones in the US, Purism. Its specs don’t match up. Even if it is assembled somewhere in Trump Castle, they’re still almost certainly sourcing components outside the US.”
This Trump T1 phone being "Made in the USA" sounds fishy. There's just one company that builds phones in the US, Purism. Its specs don't match up. Even if it is assembled somewhere in Trump Castle, they're still almost certainly sourcing components outside the US. pic.twitter.com/DBM3MWSU4N
— Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) June 16, 2025
The Trump Mobile website says its new phone will cost $499 and will run on Android 15. It is said to feature a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a 16-megapixel selfie camera. Its other specs include 12 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of internal storage, as well as a 50-megapixel main camera.
It all sounds very Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra-y, but that’s where the comparison ends: the main picture of the phone appears to be photoshopped, with the back camera shot looking eerily like an AliExpress iPhone. The stock photo comes with a MAGA wallpaper which I will simply call ‘tacky’ to keep my 100% no-swear record on the job intact; one hopes can be changed for something more subtle. An eagle flying over Mount Rushmore, perhaps.
A lot of “opposing specs” are listed by The Verge, including the now antiquated 3.5mm headphone jack, something that they say are “pretty much all made in China”. We also get no mention of the processor, or the waterproof rating, which are both quite important features.
Trump T1 specs:
- 6.78-inch AMOLED display, with a punch hole for the camera
- 120Hz refresh rate
- Three cameras on the back, including a 50MP camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 2MP macro lens
- 16MP selfie camera
- 5,000mAh battery (the Trump Mobile website actually says “5000mAh long life camera,” so I’m just assuming here)
- 256GB of storage
- 12GB of RAM (the site also calls this “storage,” which, sure)
- Fingerprint sensor in the screen and face unlock
- USB-C
- Headphone jack
- Android 15
In the end, Trump’s golden miracle feels less like a groundbreaking innovation and more like another marketing stunt from the former reality TV star. With questionable origins, dodgy photoshop, and vague specs, it’s hard to take this “made in the USA” claim seriously. And that’s before it’s even hit the market.
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