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Trump sons announce wireless service called Trump Mobile

Trump sons announce wireless service called Trump Mobile

RNZ News6 hours ago

By
Allison Morrow
, CNN
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas in May.
Photo:
Travis Ball/Sipa USA via CNN Newsource
The Trump Organization is licensing the
Trump name
for a new wireless service that's being marketed to the president's supporters and puts the brand in competition with major phone carriers like AT&T and Verizon and smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung.
"A big part of what we've done … has been focused on technology for people who have been underserved, whether that's been in crypto or anything else, but one of the places where we felt there was lackluster performance was in the mobile industry," Donald Trump Jr said early Monday at an event at Trump Tower in New York.
A website for the project advertises a $47.45 a month plan, an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's terms as the 47th and 45th president of the United States. The Trumps emphasized the new mobile company's focus on American-made devices - a gold-hued "T1" smartphone was available for pre-order Monday for $499 - and US-based services.
"You're not calling up call centers in Bangladesh," Eric Trump told Fox Business in an interview Monday. "You're doing it right out of St. Louis, Missouri."
"With Trump Mobile, we're going to be introducing an entire package of products," Trump Jr said, including telemedicine, roadside assistance and unlimited texting.
The announcement, timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the day Donald Trump took the golden escalator down to announce his 2016 presidential run, marks the latest expansion of the Trump family business into tech, cryptocurrencies and media.
The vast and growing scale of the Trump family businesses - which include long-held real estate and casino holdings along with more recent forays into digital finance and branded tchotchkes - has deepened concerns about the president's willingness to flout ethics conventions while in office. (The White House has repeatedly denied any suggestion of impropriety. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said it's "ridiculous" that anyone would suggest Trump is "doing anything for his own benefit" and that the White House holds itself to the "highest of ethical standards.")
The Trump Organization is the main holding company for President Trump's private businesses, and it is run by his eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
The mobile service will work with all three major wireless carriers, the Trump Organization said.
-
CNN

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What we know about The Trump Organization's new mobile service
What we know about The Trump Organization's new mobile service

RNZ News

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What we know about The Trump Organization's new mobile service

Photo: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / AFP The Trump Organisation has launched a smartphone and self-branded mobile service for the United States, called Trump Mobile, in a new effort to attract conservative consumers with a wireless service positioned as an alternative to major telecom providers. Some key details about the venture, announced on Tuesday (NZT) including those about the family's partner in the business and the financial terms of their licensing deal, were not immediately disclosed. Here's what we know about the new mobile phone and wireless service so far: In this photo illustration, an iPhone displays the website for The Trump Organization's mobile phone service and a Trump-branded smartphone on 16 June 2025. Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images / AFP The T1 is a gold-coloured smartphone unveiled under Trump Mobile, starting at US$499 (NZ$822) and operating on the Android system. In an interview on Fox Business Network's Mornings with Maria, Eric Trump, senior vice president of the Trump Organization, said the phone was manufactured in the US. It was not immediately clear which company had manufactured the phone. The phone will be available in September and is open for pre-orders on a new website, which went live on Monday. The phone requires a US$100 down payment and includes a 50-megapixel main camera and 256 gigabytes of internal storage. The new network will be available for a subscription price of US$47.45 per month, a reference to Trump, who was the 45th President in his previous term in office and is now serving as the 47th President. It will include unlimited calling and texts with coverage across the country and international calling to 100 locations. The new mobile venture will include call centres based in the United States and will operate using the networks of the three major US wireless carriers. The T1 smartphone uses the "Trump" name under a trademark license, similar to other Trump-branded ventures where the brand is licensed to third parties. This means the Trump Organisation is not involved in designing the phone, manufacturing it, or providing the cellular service. DTTM Operations - the entity managing President Trump's trademarks - has filed applications to use his name and the term "T1" for telecom-related services. -Reuters

Trump sons announce wireless service called Trump Mobile
Trump sons announce wireless service called Trump Mobile

RNZ News

time6 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Trump sons announce wireless service called Trump Mobile

By Allison Morrow , CNN Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas in May. Photo: Travis Ball/Sipa USA via CNN Newsource The Trump Organization is licensing the Trump name for a new wireless service that's being marketed to the president's supporters and puts the brand in competition with major phone carriers like AT&T and Verizon and smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung. "A big part of what we've done … has been focused on technology for people who have been underserved, whether that's been in crypto or anything else, but one of the places where we felt there was lackluster performance was in the mobile industry," Donald Trump Jr said early Monday at an event at Trump Tower in New York. A website for the project advertises a $47.45 a month plan, an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's terms as the 47th and 45th president of the United States. The Trumps emphasized the new mobile company's focus on American-made devices - a gold-hued "T1" smartphone was available for pre-order Monday for $499 - and US-based services. "You're not calling up call centers in Bangladesh," Eric Trump told Fox Business in an interview Monday. "You're doing it right out of St. Louis, Missouri." "With Trump Mobile, we're going to be introducing an entire package of products," Trump Jr said, including telemedicine, roadside assistance and unlimited texting. The announcement, timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the day Donald Trump took the golden escalator down to announce his 2016 presidential run, marks the latest expansion of the Trump family business into tech, cryptocurrencies and media. The vast and growing scale of the Trump family businesses - which include long-held real estate and casino holdings along with more recent forays into digital finance and branded tchotchkes - has deepened concerns about the president's willingness to flout ethics conventions while in office. (The White House has repeatedly denied any suggestion of impropriety. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said it's "ridiculous" that anyone would suggest Trump is "doing anything for his own benefit" and that the White House holds itself to the "highest of ethical standards.") The Trump Organization is the main holding company for President Trump's private businesses, and it is run by his eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr. The mobile service will work with all three major wireless carriers, the Trump Organization said. - CNN

Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing visited other legislators' homes, prosecutors say
Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing visited other legislators' homes, prosecutors say

RNZ News

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Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing visited other legislators' homes, prosecutors say

By Nathan Layne , Reuters This unlocated handout photo released by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office on 15 June 2025 shows Vance Boelter, the suspected killer of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker, as he was being apprehended. Photo: Ramsey County Sheriff's Office / AFP The suspect accused of assassinating a Minnesota lawmaker and shooting another this weekend drove to the homes of at least four state politicians as part of a planned killing spree, according to federal authorities. Vance Boelter, 57, faces state and federal murder charges after he was arrested on Sunday night (local time) following a massive two-day manhunt that was the largest in state history. He is accused of fatally shooting Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday. Boelter is also charged with shooting and wounding another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette, in their home a few miles away. On Monday prosecutors said Boelter visited the homes of two other lawmakers on Saturday disguised as a police officer, looking for more victims on his target list. Investigators have recovered notebooks from his car and residence that detailed some of his planning and included the names of dozens of legislators, mostly or all Democrats, along with abortion rights advocates. This booking photo released by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office on June 16, 2025, shows Vance Boelter at the Hennepin County Jail in Minnesota. Photo: Handout / Hennepin County Sheriff's Office / AFP "Political assassinations are rare," Joseph Thompson, Minnesota's acting US attorney, said at a news conference on Monday. "They strike at the very core of our democracy." While he characterised the shootings as politically motivated, Thompson said a precise motive was not yet clear. Contrary to some earlier news reports, authorities have not discovered a "Unabomber-style manifesto," Thompson said. Boelter was expected to appear remotely in Hennepin County court on Monday to face second-degree murder and attempted murder charges. The county's chief prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, said on Monday she will seek first-degree murder charges, which carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Federal prosecutors separately charged Boelter with an array of crimes, including murder, which could lead to a death sentence. He will appear in federal court in St. Paul on Monday. The Minnesota attacks began around 2am on Saturday, when a gunman wearing a police-style tactical vest and a "hyper-realistic silicone mask" knocked on the Hoffmans' door in Champlin, announced himself as a police officer and then shot the couple multiple times, according to prosecutors. Police identified the suspect in the Minnesota shootings as Vance Boelter. Photo: Supplied / FBI He was driving an SUV outfitted with police-style lights and a fake license plate that read "POLICE." Boelter then travelled to the home of another state lawmaker in Maple Grove, where he rang the doorbell at 2.24am, Thompson said. The official, whom prosecutors did not name, was not home. Boelter also visited the home of a state senator in New Hope, prosecutors said. An officer dispatched to the house to conduct a wellness check after police learned of the Hoffman shooting believed Boelter, who was parked outside, was another police officer and pulled up next to him. "He just sat there and stared straight ahead," Thompson said of Boelter. The responding officer went to the door to wait for additional officers, and Boelter had left by the time they arrived, prosecutors said. Shortly after, police went to the Hortmans' house in Brooklyn Park as a precaution. The arriving officers saw the suspect shoot Mark Hortman through an open door around 3.35am and exchanged fire with him before he fled on foot out the back door, according to prosecutors. Melissa Hortman was already dead inside. When police searched Boelter's SUV, they discovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9mm handgun, a gold police-style badge and the target list, according to authorities. Notebooks recovered from Boelter's car, as well as the home where he had been staying, showed he had planned the attacks for some time, prosecutors said. Police identified the suspect in the Minnesota shootings as Vance Boelter. Photo: Supplied / FBI He had the names and, in some cases, home addresses for more than 45 elected officials, "mostly or all Democrats," according to an FBI affidavit. In one book, Boelter noted that the Hortmans had two children and included surveillance details about their house, writing, "Big house off golf course 2 ways in to watch from one spot," the affidavit said. Hours after the shootings, Boelter's wife and other family members received a text message at 6.18am that read, "Dad went to war last night... 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"We are both incredibly lucky to be alive," Yvette Hoffman wrote. "We are gutted and devastated by the loss of Melissa and Mark." -Reuters

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