Trump Mobile: As President's family announces cell phone company, a journalist's bizarre experience surfaces

Time of India

6 hours ago

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Journalist shares bizarre phone call exp with Trump
Trump mobile network
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The Trump family said it will launch a mobile phone company the latest in a string of ventures that have been announced while Donald Trump is in the White House. Eric Trump, one of President Donald Trump's sons who will run the business, said that the new company would build its own phones in the U.S., and maintain a call center in the country as well.President Trump and his family are getting into the wireless business, in partnership with the three major U.S. carriers. The Trump Organization on Monday announced Trump Mobile , which will offer 5G service with an unlimited plan priced at $47.45 per month.Dubbed Trump Mobile, the network will offer 5G service through "The 47 Plan," a flagship plan available for $47.45 per month — seemingly a nod to the president's first and second terms.Trump Mobile is also slated to launch a mobile phone, the T1 Phone , which uses an Android operating system, according to its website.At a time when Trump Organisation, the holding company for Trump's business ventures, has announced Trump Mobile, a journalist's "bizarre" phone call experience with Trump has surfaced. 'Trump has no other management life, or business life, than on the phone,' Michael Wolff, a journalist who has written four books about the Trump presidency, the most recent being All or Nothing, told The Telegraph. 'He is all broadcast. The phone is essentially another platform for him. He's calling and opening his mind. He's not really calling to talk to anyone.'Being on the phone with him is a totally bizarre experience,' he adds. 'You get no words in edgewise. And the other weird thing is that he is the president of the United States and he doesn't get off the phone.""You think the call is going to end almost immediately because it's the president, but it never ends. At some point you have to end it.' Last month, a press conference in the Oval Office was interrupted by the loud ringing of Trump's phone, which was sitting on the president's desk. 'It's only a congressman,' he said, before the phone rang a second time. 'It's a different congressman,' he said.Ben Rhodes, a former speechwriter and deputy national security advisor to Obama, told The Atlantic that Trump's phone usage was 'an obvious massive risk – especially given what we know about Chinese penetration of phones in recent years'.The British journalist Piers Morgan is another recipient of Trump's phone calls. 'I've spoken with Trump on his phone probably for about 18 years,' he says. 'Unlike most world leaders he's just carried on using his phone. It's part of his daily routine. If he likes you and wants to talk to you he'll pick up, or he'll call you out of the blue. There have been other [world leaders] I could speak to on the phone, but none where it is so fluid and relaxed.'A few months ago he called me when I was in a black cab, the day after Keir Starmer had been to the White House and promised him a state visit, to ask how it was going down in the UK. I was telling him and I could see the cab driver's face getting increasingly bemused and excited.'After 15 minutes I put the phone down and said 'I'll see you soon Mr President'. The cabbie said 'Piers, I don't mean to intrude into your privacy but was that Donald Trump?' I said it was. He said 'I've been driving this cab for 35 years and never had anyone talk to the president of the United States in the back.''The Trump Organization announced it is starting a cellular phone service called T1 Mobile that will charge $47.45 a month and include unlimited calls, text and data. It said it also plans to roll out a new phone that will cost $499. The new service was designed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of President Trump's announcement of his first presidential run, the Trump Organization said in a Monday statement.The company said its mobile phone plan, which it dubbed the 47 Plan in a nod to Trump's current rank as the 47th U.S. president, won't require a contract or a credit check. The plan will also include free calls to more than 100 countries, including those with U.S. military bases.