Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep asking every week, because apparently no one else is. We’ve reached out, as usual, to inquire about its whereabouts, and as the phone’s supposed launch drags on, we noticed its website may be violating FTC rules.
When the Trump phone was first announced last June, it was proudly promised to be made in America. Trump Mobile quickly walked that back, and now promises only that the T1 is “assembled” in the US. Except… it didn’t walk it back everywhere. One website page still promises the phone is “American-made,” in likely violation of Federal Trade Commission rules.
On the Trump Mobile website’s “Phones” page, you can still find the erroneous claim that the T1 is a “Premium American-Made Smartphone for Performance & Privacy,” which I was tipped off to by SEO consultant Sam Penny. It’s not actually visible on the page itself, but appears in its meta title - which populates both the browser tab and search engine results. I’ve asked Trump Mobile for comment; as you might have guessed, I haven’t heard back.
“American-made” is specifically mentioned by the FTC as a regulated phrase under its Made in USA rules. To use it in marketing, a product must be “all or virtually all” made in the US, right down to its components. We still don’t know exactly where the T1 Phone is manufactured, but even Trump Mobile has admitted its components largely aren’t US-sourced.
Otherwise, it’s been a quiet week in the world of Trump Mobile. CNET has been publishing its review of the phone in installments, so check that out if you want early insight into its practical performance, including a few camera samples and battery life notes. We’re still waiting for our phones.
Meanwhile, The Guardian dug deeper into last week’s customer data breach with help from Jonathan Soma, a programmer and professor at Columbia University. Soma noted the leaked data included 27,224 preorder entries, but the website generated a new entry every time someone reached the last step before payment, regardless of whether they paid the $100 deposit. As The Guardian notes, that means “the true number of preorders was likely to be even lower.”
Finally, I might have found the third T1 Phone in the wild. A video showing the phone booting up was posted to TikTok and Instagram by Tres Wittum, a Republican who’s run for both Congress and the Senate in Tennessee, losing the Republican primary each time. I haven’t been able to confirm Wittum genuinely bought his own T1 Phone, but it does seem possible - if true, it would be the first sign Trump Mobile has actually shipped a phone to a regular buyer. I’ve asked Wittum how he got the phone, but haven’t heard back yet.