The Trump phone still isn’t real

Last week Trump Mobile overhauled its website, in the process officially revealing the updated design of its T1 Phone, with a new spec sheet to match. You’d be forgiven for thinking that means it’s ready to release, but make no mistake: beyond a possible FCC authorization and a single phone someone showed me over a video call, there’s still no proof the Trump phone is ever going to launch.

The phone’s shiny new design may now be plastered over the Trump Mobile site, but there’s no actual release date for the hardware. In fact, there’s even less release info than before. The site used to say the phone would arrive “later this year” (which was first written in 2025, but hey ho), but now doesn’t mention a prospective release at all.

We also don’t know how much it will eventually cost. There’s still a $100 deposit to place for the phone, and a $499 price tag, but that’s now listed as a “promotional price,” something never mentioned on the website before now. Trump Mobile executives did suggest that change was coming when I spoke to them in February, but would only say that the final price will be “below $1,000.” That’s more information than is on the website as it stands.

There’s also no sign that Trump Mobile as a whole has changed its modus operandi. Neither it nor the Trump Organization ever put out a press release about the redesign, and the company and its executives continue to ignore my emails. The new Trump Mobile logo can now be found on its Instagram, Facebook, and Truth Social accounts, but still isn’t on its X page. The company has never posted on Truth Social or Facebook, posted exactly once on Instagram, and hasn’t tweeted since last August. This doesn’t look much like a functional phone company.

What the company has done is add a new page containing terms of service for its preorder deposits. The company “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase,” and also won’t guarantee the phone will hit a specific ship date, work properly on your carrier, or match the spec lists and renders it’s published so far. Some of that is likely boilerplate legal caution, but in the context of a company that’s spent the last 10 months not releasing a phone, it’s another reason to be skeptical about what’s really coming.

Tellingly, the terms are also clear that “the deposit does not lock in pricing [or] promotions,” the terms of which “may change any time prior to purchase.” It’s interesting wording that, given the banner you’ll find in all-caps at the top of every page on the site right now: “Lock in your T1 Phone promotional pricing now.”

I’ll believe the T1 Phone is real when I have one in my hands, and other buyers have the same. Until then, all bets are off.

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