On June 16, 2025, I pre-ordered an Android smartphone. I’ve done this dozens of times before in my life, but this time was a little different. On that day, I was pre-ordering a phone that I didn’t want and had every reason to believe I would never actually see. The device in question was the T1 Phone, the first phone from a brand new company called Trump Mobile.
Trump Mobile is both a new carrier and phone company started by President Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump. The T1 Phone was, at the time, sold as a made-in-America, gold-plated Android phone that looked alarmingly close to an iPhone. On the back was an enormous “T1” logo above an American flag.