Forbes Daily: New Phone Service Continues To Blur Lines For Trump

Forbes

5 hours ago

The latest push from the Trump Organization to monetize the presidency is a cellphone service.
Unveiled by President Donald Trump's eldest sons, 'Trump Mobile' will offer a talk, text and data plan and its own phone, with service starting at a monthly price of $47.45—a reference to Trump being the 45th and 47th president of the United States. Its signature 'T1 Phone' will feature an American flag on the back and have a base price of $499.
It's the latest example of the blurred line between Trump's position in the White House and his family business dealings, and the announcement comes after Trump threatened to hit Apple and other smartphone makers with 25% tariffs if they didn't manufacture the devices in the U.S. Shares of providers like Verizon and AT&T fell Monday.
Smoke rises from an oil storage facility after it appeared to have been struck by an Israeli strike in Tehran.
AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
Israel warned civilians to evacuate Tehran ahead of planned strikes on 'the Iranian regime's military infrastructure,' the first time in the conflict an evacuation warning has been issued for targeted residential areas. President Donald Trump echoed the warning to evacuate and said he wants 'something better than a cease fire' after making an earlier-than-scheduled exit from the G7 summit in Canada, and dismissed reports that he had reached out to Iran for 'peace talks.'
MORE: Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced plans to introduce a measure that would restrict Trump from joining Israel's conflict with Iran without receiving congressional approval. Massie said he is 'introducing a bipartisan War Powers Resolution' before the later House today to 'prohibit our involvement' in the conflict.
The Israeli military attacked Iran's state-run television station Monday, interrupting a live broadcast. Israeli officials claim the building was occupied 'under the guise of civilian activity' by Iran, while Iran accused Israel of committing war crimes. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz appeared to confirm the strike, writing on X 'the Iranian regime's propaganda and broadcasting authority' was attacked by the IDF after Israel warned Tehran of planned strikes in the area.
Donald Trump spoke at a Saudi-U.S. business investment forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in May, during the first official foreign trip of his second term.
Photo byPresident Donald Trump benefitted from a string of real estate projects the Trump Organization has struck since the beginning of last year, but no one appears to have paid Trump more than Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan. Since 2021, Forbes estimates Trump has received more than $27 million from the developer, as its centimillionaire cofounder and chair Yousef Al Shelash has developed a close relationship with the Trump family.
MORE: Trump's embrace of crypto during his second term in the White House is also making him money, a recent financial disclosure shows. Trump earned $57.4 million from World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform launched in September 2024 with the help of his three sons.
President Donald Trump said deportation raids will target 'America's largest cities,' following pushback even from some conservatives over the raids' impacts on the hospitality and agriculture industries. It's a shift from orders the Trump Administration reportedly gave ICE earlier this month to conduct workplace raids and essentially do whatever it takes to increase arrests. ICE has averaged around 1,300 daily arrests in June, a more than 100% increase from Trump's first 100 days in office.
Nik Storonsky
Photo By Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile for Web Summit Rio via Getty Images
Revolut billionaire cofounder Nik Storonsky's family office has been quietly building a network of high-end vacation properties around the world as part of plans for a new luxury travel business. The project, named 'Utopia Design,' is building luxury properties in Spain, Brazil and the Dominican Republic, according to sources close to the project, corporate filings and online job listings reviewed by Forbes.
The suspect in the killing of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband is facing the possibility of the death penalty, after what federal officials called 'a chilling attack on our democracy' and 'political extremism.' Over the weekend, Elon Musk and others tried to paint the shooter as a violent leftist, but friends and former colleagues described Vance Boelter, who is charged in the killing, as a devout Christian and political conservative.
Jorge Pérez and his sons Jon Paul (left) and Nicholas (right) work closely together at Related Group but don't always align on politics.
Related Group
Jorge Pérez, a 75-year-old billionaire developer who made his fortune selling luxury condos in South Florida, was once friends with President Donald Trump before his foray into politics.
Now, Pérez has to deal with the president's tariff plans and immigration policies, which are scaring off some buyers and making it even more expensive to build. Since Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum were announced, new building permits for housing units in the Miami area have collapsed by 29%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
For his firm, the Related Group, those tariffs had already led to fears that construction costs could rise as much as 20% in March. Then on June 4, Trump doubled the steel and aluminum tariffs to 50%.
Trump's crackdown on immigration is another huge concern. Roughly one in four construction workers in the U.S. are immigrants, and Trump's policies have dealt a blow to developers like Related.
Immigration is a personal issue for Pérez, who was born in 1949 to Cuban parents in Argentina, landing in Colombia after his family became exiles in 1959 and eventually moving to Miami at age 19.
But Pérez, who is now worth an estimated $2.6 billion, is not giving up on the American dream. After all, he's been in this business for more than four decades and claims to have built and managed more than 100,000 units and sold more than $50 billion worth of properties. 'We are part of the very lucky people that this country has allowed to make more money than I ever thought was possible,' he added.
WHY IT MATTERS
'Miami's real estate market has been booming since the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to a huge migration of people from elsewhere in the U.S. and around the world,' says Forbes staff writer Giacomo Tognini. 'That's helped the area's luxury condo sector in particular, with a wave of wealthy buyers sending property prices skyrocketing to record levels and setting off a frenzy of new development. Developers like Related Group have benefitted handsomely—but Trump's tariffs and immigration crackdown are now casting uncertainty on how long the boom will last.'
MORE He Made A Billion Building Houses For Florida's 'Marvelous Middle.' Now Things Aren't So Marvelous.
The Trump Administration is weighing an expansion of its travel ban to include dozens more countries, a move that could deal a major economic blow to World Cup host cities in the U.S.:
36: The number of new countries the administration is considering adding to the travel ban, in addition to the current 12 that are primarily in the Middle East and Africa
$30.5 billion: The amount of economic output the 2026 World Cup is expected to drive in the U.S., per FIFA
50/50: The expected split between domestic and international visitors to host cities
New graduates face a challenging job market, but building a professional network is one of the best ways to boost your chances of landing a position. You can start by leveraging your skills online, like posting consistently on platforms such as TikTok or LinkedIn, and volunteer to speak for professional organizations like a local chamber of commerce. You can also attend conferences to build connections, especially those where an ideal future employer is presenting or speaking.
Astronomers have discovered a distant celestial body that could be a new dwarf planet in our solar system. It's more than twice as far as which planet?
A. Neptune
B. Jupiter
C. Pluto
D. Saturn
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.