Trump Organization unveils $499 gold phone raising new concerns on conflicts of interest
Donald Trump has launched a mobile phone service and $499 gold smartphone, the latest monetization of his presidency by a family business empire now run by his sons.
The Trump Organization unveiled Trump Mobile on Monday with a $47.45 monthly plan – both the service name and price referencing Trump as the 47th president. The company will also sell a gold-cased 'T1' smartphone in September etched with the American flag.
The venture will be headed by his sons Donald Jr and Eric Trump, who took over the company after Trump transitioned to his second presidency. The mobile service joins Trump-branded watches, sneakers and Bibles as products capitalizing on his political brand, with the Trump sons indicating that more is to come.
'We are going to be introducing an entire package of products where people can come and they can get telemedicine on their phones for one flat monthly fee, roadside assistance on their cars, unlimited texting to 100 countries around the world,' Donald Trump Jr said at the Monday morning announcement at Trump Tower in New York.
The news coincided with the 10-year anniversary of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign launch when he famously came down the escalator, and as the family business expands from real estate into digital media and telecommunications. The venture will operate through licensing deals that generated over $8m for the president in 2024, according to financial disclosures from Friday.
The foray into phones raises new questions about conflicts of interest, with the president's family business entering a sector heavily regulated by federal agencies while Trump wields executive power over them. It creates a particularly difficult situation for Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, who must now oversee regulatory matters affecting a network bearing his boss's name.
The T1 smartphone runs Android 15 with mid-range specifications including a 6.8-inch display, 50MP camera and 5000mAh battery. At $499 it costs a third of the price of flagship iPhones, but appears to be marketed as a luxury device because of its gold casing. Notably, the T1 brings back the headphone jack, a feature largely abandoned by smartphone manufacturers over the years.
On its website, Trump Mobile claims coverage matching major carriers Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, which collectively hold control of nearly the entire wireless market in the US. The smartphone market represents a challenging sector for new entrants, as Apple and Samsung – which are manufactured overseas primarily in China, Vietnam and India – dominate sales in America, according to research by Counterpoint from May.
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