{"id":39666,"date":"2025-12-31T05:07:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T05:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=39666"},"modified":"2025-12-31T05:07:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T05:07:04","slug":"trump-mobile-delays-plan-to-launch-gold-coloured-smartphone-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=39666","title":{"rendered":"Trump Mobile delays plan to launch gold-coloured smartphone this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=29fc1e75-7bec-4011-acc3-603e51cf9fe2&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Trump Mobile, the phone company launched by the Trump Organization, has delayed plans to ship its gold-coloured smartphone by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>It marks the latest setback for the project, which had originally promised to offer a US-made smartphone this year costing $499 to compete with mainstream devices from Apple and Samsung but has subsequently scaled back its ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Trump Mobile\u2019s customer service team told the Financial Times that the recent US government shutdown had delayed deliveries of the phone. It added there was a \u201cstrong possibility\u201d the device would not be shipped this month.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cT1\u201d device, along with a mobile plan costing $47.45 per month, announced in June, was one of several efforts by the Trump family business to capitalise on his return to the White House.<\/p>\n<p>The launch coincided with US President Donald Trump\u2019s criticism of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/apple-inc\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Apple<\/a> for its heavy reliance on Chinese manufacturers. He demanded that the iPhone maker build the devices in the US while threatening it, as well as Samsung, with 25 per cent tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trump Mobile initially said the T1 would be launched in August and \u201cbuilt in the United States\u201d, with a $100 pre-order payment to secure the device.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Its claim that the device would be American made was met with scepticism by supply chain analysts and industry experts. They noted that building a device with mass consumer appeal using only US components would be near impossible given the overwhelming reliance on Asian supply chains by existing smartphone suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>Less than 5 per cent of the components in an iPhone are currently manufactured in the US, according to IDC estimates.<\/p>\n<p>Within weeks of the launch, Trump Mobile <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/ae04241d-475e-429c-aa70-d619faaf8414\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">rowed back<\/a> on its claim, tweaking its promotional material to say it would instead be \u201cbrought to life in the United States.\u201d The August launch date for the T1 was later pushed back to the end of the year. <\/p>\n<p>More recently, Trump Mobile has started offering second-hand devices from the two dominant smartphone providers in the US, Apple and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/e6c25ec9-638b-4ed1-9e76-2443e44f8aa8\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Samsung<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>It offers the iPhone 15, launched in 2023, at $629. The website says that its second-hand devices come \u201cwithout the inflated price tag\u201d. A new iPhone 16, launched last year, costs $699 if bought directly from Apple.<\/p>\n<p>Trump Mobile also sells second-hand models of the Samsung S24, launched at the start of 2024, for $459, slightly lower than the price of a second-hand version of the same device from Samsung\u2019s own website, where it is priced at $489.<\/p>\n<p>The team behind Trump Mobile has kept a low profile since the launch event. The president\u2019s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, said they had \u201cpartnered with some of the greatest people in the industry\u201d to target \u201clacklustre performance\u201d in the mobile sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A trio of Trump Mobile executives \u2014 Pat O\u2019Brien, Eric Thomas and Don Hendrickson \u2014 was introduced, although little about their background was disclosed at the time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"8b58f16e-fafa-4cfe-a5dc-353fe39f87c7\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8b58f16e-fafa-4cfe-a5dc-353fe39f87c7\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2262\/1273\"><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Trump Mobile\u2019s device chief, Thomas, was the owner of a real estate business called Olympus Constructors in Utah, the company confirmed to the Financial Times. <\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien is president of Ensurety Ventures, a Missouri-based insurance company that operates Trump Mobile\u2019s customer service line. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hendrickson is listed online as an executive vice-president at Liberty Mobile Wireless, the little-known Florida-based virtual network operator that supplies the Trump Mobile plan, which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8b58f16e-fafa-4cfe-a5dc-353fe39f87c7\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">run out of Trump Tower<\/a> in Miami.\u00a0At the event in June, O\u2019Brien said Hendrickson had a background in the pager industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trump Mobile, Thomas and O\u2019Brien did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0Hendrickson could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/29fc1e75-7bec-4011-acc3-603e51cf9fe2\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}