Where is Trump’s phone? We’ll keep talking about it every week. We, as always, have reached out to ask about the whereabouts of the Trump phone. This time, surprisingly, we got a response – and an interview.
Trump’s call is real – maybe, soon? – And I have seen it. Not directly, but during an hour-long video call with two Trump Mobile executives, who showed me a phone, and told me more about why it was delayed, when it might actually reach buyers, and why its spec sheet has changed repeatedly.
I spoke to Don Hendrickson — yes, the same one who bugged me last time — and Eric Thomas, two of the three executives who run Trump Mobile. The T1 phone that Thomas showed me on Google Meet isn’t the final production model, but it’s apparently close. Tea1 The logo – which has been seen since the first renders of the phone – will apparently be removed ahead of launch, although the American flag below will remain, as well as the signature gold finish.
At a glance it’s clear that this is not the same phone that the company teased eight months ago. The iPhone-esque camera triangle has been replaced with three lenses placed vertically in a black, oval island with the words “Trump Mobile” written across it. Look closely and you’ll see that those lenses are unequally spaced.
The phone differs in a few other ways from both the version announced in June 2025 and the altered spec sheet that appeared on the Trump Mobile website a few weeks later. It looks larger, the “waterfall” display (curved screens are back, baby) appears closer to the 6.78-inch screen that was originally promised than the 6.25-inch model that appeared a little later.
It will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 series chipset, which is typically used in upper-middle devices, and include a 5,000mAh battery, 512GB of storage, and support for microSD cards up to 1TB. I don’t know full camera details yet, but I was told the selfie camera and main rear camera are both using 50-megapixel sensors, and a glimpse of the camera UI suggests the inclusion of an ultrawide lens and perhaps a telephoto, neither of which were previously listed.
“This actual phone matches the top-of-the-line phones on the market this year,” says Thomas, later claiming that it’s comparable to “any phone priced over $1,000.” I’m not entirely sure that’s true, as you can get comparable features, even a 50-megapixel selfie camera, in the OnePlus Nord 5, which comes with 512GB of storage, for £499 – about $679 in the UK. A lot will depend on camera performance and whether it includes flagship touches like waterproofing or wireless charging, which I don’t know yet. But it’s true that some features – selfie camera resolution, storage capacity, ultrawide lens – are better than the T1 phone we saw (or didn’t see) at launch.
To reflect that perceived improvement in quality, prices are increasing. Hendrickson is quick to point out that everyone who has already deposited $100 (he won’t tell me how many have done so) will still pay a total of $499, but they’re now calling it the “introductory price.” Later buyers will pay more, though “under $1,000” is all the pair will confirm, with the final price apparently still to be decided.
So why all the changes? In the words of Thomas and Hendrickson, there was so much interest in the T1 phone that they felt it was right to go a little further in their long-term plans and improve the phone. Thomas says of the company’s thinking after the initial media attention, “Let’s just drop our first entry-level phone that we were going to introduce and get to market quickly.” “Let’s take our time and do what we were planning to do next.”
The pair suggest some, though not all, of the delay is behind the decision to re-spec the phone – the T1 phone is now six months late to launch. Still, they say it’s coming soon. The phone has apparently cleared FCC certification (admittedly this has been slowed down due to the government shutdown) and is now awaiting certification with T-Mobile, which is expected to be completed in mid-March. After that, Thomas says the company will be ready to ship the phone to early buyers, though he’s hesitant to give an exact date. For a phone that was first promised by August or September, then by the end of 2025, etc. still The official website only reads “later this year”, I’d take any launch timeline with a handful of salt.
Still, it looks like we’ll be seeing more soon. Both officials promised that Trump Mobile is about to be “relaunched”, and that the website will be updated with images of the final phone as well as its spec sheet within the “next few weeks”. Our long wait is almost over.
Of course, there’s one thing the T1 phone won’t be: made in the United States. Instead, the handsets undergo “final assembly” in Miami, though Thomas is careful not to say too much about what that means. This is more than just “putting the curtain on the phone” and obviously involves putting the final 10 or so pieces together. The pair wouldn’t say where the bulk of the phone was assembled before that, only that it was done in a “nation of choice,” which essentially seems to be a way of saying “not China.”
For a product to be called “Made in the United States” you must meet certain standards set and enforced by the FTC. Instead the Trump mobile site currently promises that “there are American hands behind every device,” and Thomas says this term was chosen because they “don’t want to mislead people at all.” He admits that “something may have been put on the website” by mistake at launch (in this case, a huge homepage banner that said the T1 was “Made in the USA” and a press release saying it was “proudly designed and manufactured in the USA”), but since then “we’ve stayed away from it.”
Full assembly in the US is still what the pair call a “goal”, however, they’re apparently working towards future phones like the T1 Ultra – yes, that’s apparently real too, although they wouldn’t tell me more about it.
I guess we’ll have to keep waiting, but until then: The Trump phone is real (ish), I’ve seen it (some), and it’s finally going to launch next month (probably).
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