As I sat in the bookstore café with a cortado and oat bar, I got a little nervous when I turned on my phone’s hotspot. What if my hotspot network turns me away? Will this be called Allison’s Trump phone? Will some smart person sitting next to me and drinking matcha notice this? What will they think of me?
Of course this did not happen. The default network name was “Allison’s S25”, which refers to the Samsung Galaxy phone I was using, not the network. But this experience conjures up a strange feeling I can only describe as “weird” as I texted, talked, and scrolled through my day using my Trump Wireless plan.
To be honest, I was surprised that the service identified itself as Trump’s, and not as Liberty Mobile, the MVNO that runs the Trump Organization’s MVNO service. But there were those five letters staring back at me under my SIM settings when I installed the card. Whenever I swiped down to check notifications they were at the top of the status bar.
While testing Trump Mobile I didn’t really try to do a lot of things that seem contrary to the whole Trump ethos – it’s just how it works. I used this service to check the holds at my public library. I used it on public transportation. I used it while shopping at the local grocery store. I used it to access indie bookstores. It worked perfectly fine. It still felt weird doing all this with the Trump Network indicator in the corner of the screen.
I have many complaints about the values that the Trump Organization and the Trump name represent. But wireless service? Okay, I guess. My Galaxy S25 proudly displays the 5G badge most of the time. Trump Mobile runs on T-Mobile, and T-Mobile coverage is quite good in Seattle, where it is headquartered. In fact, I got better download speeds on the S25 using Trump Mobile than I did using my Verizon plan on the S25 Plus. i pay way The Trump service cost more than $51.99 for my Verizon service. Side note: The official price of the plan is $47.45, which is a lovely nod to Trump’s presidency, though probably out of order to charge a few extra bucks. But when you add tax, your price drops to $51.99.
There are little red flags here and there that suggest Trump Mobile probably doesn’t have it all together
As is usually the case, the Trump Organization imposed its name on a product that was already well established – in this case, T-Mobile wireless service. To be fair, this is basically how MVNOs work, so it’s not surprising that the network part of the product works quite well. However, everything else is a bit hit-and-miss. There was the issue of my missing SIM card, which wasn’t very good. But some customer service guys resolved the issue, and once I had the card in my hands, I was able to start the service by inserting the card into my phone, logging into my account, and typing in some numbers in the right place.
But there are little red flags here and there that suggest Trump Mobile probably doesn’t have it all together. The hours given for the customer service line listed on the SIM kit differ from those given to me on the website, which is different from the actual hours given when you call. The instructions on the SIM packaging tell you to go to trumpmobile.com/activate, but that page shows a 404 error. The instructional video that tells you how to install the SIM card looks suspiciously AI-generated (and I swear to God the voice-over sounds like Dieter). It all seems mixed together and incongruous. Seriously, icky.
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