Trump Mobile announced with a $499 gold 'T1' phone
A press release for the new company promised that it would be "a transformational, new cellular service designed to deliver top-tier connectivity, unbeatable value and all-American service for our nation's hardest-working people."
Trump Mobile also announced the launch of the T1 Phone, a gold-colored, made-in-America smartphone etched with an American flag that will retail for $499. The company's signature mobile plan, the 47 plan, will offer unlimited talk, text, and data for $47.45 per month.
Credit: Trump Mobile
Ever since the introduction of his "Liberation Day" tariffs, President Donald Trump has been pressuring Apple CEO Tim Cook to start building the iPhone in America. As Mashable has previously reported, a made-in-America iPhone could cost as much as $3,000, while Apple itself would potentially need to spend billions to create the domestic infrastructure needed to build its flagship smartphone in the United States.
Trump has targeted Cook with Truth Social posts, even threatening to place a 25 percent tariff on iPhones and other smartphones.
"Trump Mobile is going to change the game, we're building on the movement to put America first, and we will deliver the highest levels of quality and service. Our company is based right here in the United States because we know it's what our customers want and deserve," said Donald Trump Jr, EVP of The Trump Organization, in a press release.
The announcement was timed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the launch of President Trump's first campaign for president.
Once upon a time, U.S. presidents were expected to eschew investment and financial opportunities while occupying The White House to avoid conflicts of interest. In fact, the U.S. Constitution includes an Emoluments Clause, which explicitly prohibits the president from profiting off the office.
Former president Jimmy Carter even put his beloved peanut farm into a blind trust while he was in office to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. The Emoluments Clause is essentially enforced by the honor system; the Trump Administration has also interpreted the constitutional doctrine in novel ways.
The Trump Organization says a U.S.-based customer service team will be at the ready 24/7 to help customers switch to Trump Mobile. The plan also comes with a number of benefits to woo potential customers, including:
24/7 roadside assistance via Drive America
Telehealth medical services
Free International calling (more than 100 countries included)
"No contracts, no credit check"
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17 minutes ago
Trump says Zelenskyy can end Russia war 'almost immediately' before White House meet
LONDON -- President Donald Trump on Sunday teased what he said would be a "big day" as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a host of European leaders prepared for a White House meeting that Trump said can end Russia's invasion of Ukraine "almost immediately." Monday's Washington, D.C., summit follows Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Since that meeting, Trump appears to have dropped his demand for Russia to agree to an immediate ceasefire and is now pressuring Kyiv to accept territorial concessions to secure a peace deal. On Sunday, Trump explicitly said Ukraine will not regain Crimea -- occupied by Russia in 2014. The president also repeated that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO, though White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and Zelenskyy have hinted at alternative security guarantees involving the U.S. "President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," Trump wrote on social media on Sunday. The president has previously incorrectly framed Ukraine as the initiator of the conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. That invasion followed Moscow's cross-border aggression in 2014, which saw Russia seize Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region. "Big day at the White House tomorrow," Trump added. "I've never had so many European leaders at one time. It's my great honor to host them!!!" "NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE," Trump added. "Some things never change!!!" Trump is expected to greet Zelenskyy outside the West Wing at 1 p.m. ET, according to a schedule published by the White House, after which they will hold a bilateral meeting. The president is scheduled to take photos with European leaders at around 2:30 p.m. ET and hold a multilateral meeting with them at 3 p.m. Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that he had arrived in Washington on Sunday night, expressing his gratitude to Trump for hosting the planned meeting. "We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably," Zelenskyy wrote. "And peace must be lasting," he added, noting Moscow's 2014 aggression plus the failure of the international community to enforce the 1994 Budapest Memorandum -- which was also signed by Russia -- that offered Ukraine "security assurances" in exchange for Kyiv surrendering its Cold War-era nuclear arsenal. "Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their independence," Zelenskyy wrote. "Russia must end this war, which it itself started. And I hope that our joint strength with America, with our European friends, will force Russia into a real peace." Friday's summit in Alaska ended with Russia demanding that Ukraine cede the entirety of its contested and fortified eastern Donetsk region in exchange for an end to the fighting, two sources told ABC News. Trump then challenged Kyiv to "make the deal" and lavished praise on Putin. "Look, Russia is a very big power, and they're not," Trump told Fox News after the meeting. Putin, he added, is a "strong guy" and "tough as hell." A host of European leaders will accompany Zelenskyy at the White House meeting. European leaders have backed Zelenskyy and Ukraine's positions during the Trump administration's pressure campaign on Kyiv. Those confirmed as attending are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Ahead of last week's summit in Alaska, European leaders echoed Zelenskyy's position that a ceasefire must precede peace negotiations, that security guarantees for Kyiv must be put in place and that only Ukraine can make the final decision on any territorial concessions. On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that he and his fellow European leaders will be traveling to Washington both to support Zelenskyy and "to defend European interests" at a "very serious" moment for the continent's security. "If we are weak today with Russia, we prepare the wars of tomorrow," Macron said, adding that Moscow had "never" respected past "promises of non-aggression." The nature of Western security guarantees for Ukraine will be a key topic for discussion, Macron said, explaining to journalists a two-pronged approach by which Ukraine's military would be bolstered and a Western "reassurance force" would be deployed to Ukraine to act as a deterrent against renewed Russian attacks. Any concessions will spark intense debate within Ukraine. The country's constitution dictates that any changes to the national borders must be approved by an all-Ukraine referendum. Kyiv's ambitions to join both NATO and the European Union are also enshrined in the constitution, meaning it may need to be amended for Ukraine to accept exclusion from either bloc. "Territorial concessions are impossible," Oleksandr Mrezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. "Under the present circumstances, we need a ceasefire and security guarantees to prevent Putin from violating the ceasefire." "In my opinion, Putin's idea about a 'peace treaty' instead of a ceasefire is extremely dangerous and unacceptable for both Ukraine and the U.S.," he added. "That the U.S. offers to be engaged in security guarantees is great news for us, but we don't know yet what it will be in practice," Merezhko said. "I personally continue to believe that the best option for all -- Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU -- is NATO membership for Ukraine." "Putin is afraid of only one thing -- NATO," Merezhko added. "That's why it's the most reliable and effective security guarantee for us." Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine continued long-range attacks overnight into Monday. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 140 drones and four missiles in the country, of which 88 drones were shot down or suppressed. Missile and drone impacts were reported across 25 locations in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kyiv regions, the air force said. At least seven people, including a child, were killed when a Russian drone impacted an apartment complex in Kharkiv, local officials said. Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces downed at least 24 Ukrainian drones overnight.


NBC News
17 minutes ago
- NBC News
South Korean and U.S. militaries begin annual summertime drills to cope with North Korean threats
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the United States began their annual large-scale joint military exercise on Monday to better cope with threats by nuclear-armed North Korea, which has warned the drills would deepen regional tensions and vowed to respond to 'any provocation' against its territory. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield, the second of two large-scale exercises held annually in South Korea, after another set in March, will involve 21,000 soldiers, including 18,000 South Koreans, in computer-simulated command post operations and field training. The drills, which the allies describe as defensive, could trigger a response from North Korea, which has long portrayed the allies' exercises as invasion rehearsals and has often used them as a pretext for military demonstrations and weapons tests aimed at advancing its nuclear program. In a statement last week, North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol said the drills show the allies' stance of 'military confrontation' with the North and declared that its forces would be ready to counteract 'any provocation going beyond the boundary line.' Ulchi Freedom Shield comes at a pivotal moment for South Korea's new liberal President Lee Jae Myung, who is preparing for an Aug. 25 summit with President Donald Trump in Washington. Trump has raised concerns in Seoul that he may shake up the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the American troop presence in South Korea and possibly reducing it as Washington shifts its focus more toward China. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high as North Korea has brushed aside Lee's calls to resume diplomacy with its war-divided rival, with relations having soured in recent years as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerated his weapons program and deepened alignment with Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 'What's needed now is the courage to steadily take steps toward easing tensions, grounded in a firmly maintained state of ironclad security readiness,' Lee said during a Cabinet meeting on Monday. South Korea also on Monday began a four-day civil defense drill involving thousands of public workers, often scheduled alongside the allies' summertime military exercises. Seoul's previous conservative government responded to North Korean threats by expanding military exercises with the United States and seeking stronger U.S. assurances for nuclear deterrence, drawing an angry reaction from Kim, who last year renounced long-term reconciliation goals and rewrote the North's constitution to label the South a permanent enemy. In his latest message to Pyongyang on Friday, Lee, who took office in June, said he would seek to restore a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce border tensions and called for North Korea to respond to the South's efforts to rebuild trust and revive talks. The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between the Koreas, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes. But South Korea suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea's launches of trash-laden balloons toward the South, and moved to resume frontline military activities and propaganda campaigns. The step came after North Korea had already declared it would no longer abide by the agreement. When asked whether the Lee government's steps to restore the agreement would affect the allies' drills, the South's Defense Ministry said Monday that there are no immediate plans to suspend live-fire training near the Koreas' disputed western maritime border. While the allies have postponed half of Ulchi Freedom Shield's originally planned 44 field training programs to September, U.S. military officials denied South Korean media speculation that the scaled-back drills were meant to make room for diplomacy with the North, citing heat concerns and flood damage to some training fields. Dating back to his first term, Trump has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the 28,500 American troops stationed on its soil. Public comments by senior Trump administration officials have suggested a push to restructure the alliance, which some experts say could potentially affect the size and role of U.S. forces in South Korea. Under this approach, South Korea would take a greater role in countering North Korean threats while U.S. forces focus more on China, possibly leaving Seoul to face reduced benefits but increased costs and risks, experts say.


New York Times
17 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trump Wants to Fight Democrats on Crime. They're Treading Cautiously.
With his efforts to take control of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., this week, President Trump has pushed the issue of crime back to the foreground of American politics. In doing so, he's invited a fight with Democrats, who are treading cautiously as they seek to forcefully oppose the federal incursion into the nation's capital, something no president has ever attempted, without getting caught up in a debate over public safety on Mr. Trump's terms. Mr. Trump and his Republican allies wielded the sharp increase in violent crime in urban areas during the pandemic as a campaign cudgel, winning control of the House in the 2022 midterms. Mr. Trump expanded his winning coalition two years later, in part with promises to prevent the rest of America from becoming like the cities he called 'unlivable, unsanitary nightmares,' deriding the data that showed improvement across the country. While his tactics in Washington, D.C., are extraordinary, the effort is an actualization of one of his most tried-and-true political arguments: Democrats — often Black Democrats — have let lawlessness run rampant in the cities and states they were elected to run. At a moment when Mr. Trump's approval ratings even among his supporters are declining, he appears to be laying the groundwork for Republicans to once again weaponize the issue in the midterm elections. Mr. Trump has sent National Guard troops to patrol the streets, turned federal law enforcement officers into beat cops and sought to put the local police department fully under his administration's control. And the president has suggested he wants to bring his brand of law and order to Chicago; Baltimore; Oakland, Calif.; and New York, all liberal cities in blue states, while avoiding any mention of high-crime cities in red states, like Memphis or St. Louis. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.