According to the press release, this “T1 Phone” is “proudly designed and built in the United States,” which is a curious claim given that it is not possible.
When President Trump imposed tariffs, it became painfully clear that building phones in the US would require years, a few trillion dollars in investment, and a miracle. Experts told us that the country lacks a skilled workforce, adequate infrastructure, and affordable components to match Chinese output.
A Trump Organisation mouthpiece insisted via email that manufacturing would happen in Alabama, California and Florida. That sounded appropriately patriotic until Eric Trump deviated from the script.
“You can build these phones in the United States,” Trump’s lad told podcaster Benny Johnson while flashing a phone that looked like a bejazzled mid-range phone.
“Eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America. We have to bring manufacturing back here.”
So, for the phone to happen, all smartphone manufacturing would have to move to the US. Even if this were to happen, it would take years.
Then it seems that the spec is relatively high for the price. It features a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, which places it in the same ballpark as the $1,199 iPhone 16 Pro Max. The display likely comes from Samsung or LG, as no US firm can manufacture these panels. It also features improved battery life and RAM.
While this comparison merely confirms that the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max is horrendously overpriced, it also raises questions about how the Trump Organisation can sell the phone at that price and still make a profit.
Other frills include an under-display fingerprint sensor, a tech Job’s Mob has yet to touch, even though Samsung had it working fine on the Galaxy S10.
Then there is the small matter of where the Trump Organisation is getting its chip. Most advanced processors are manufactured in Taiwan or China, with only a small number made in the US.
Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School operations management professor Tinglong Dai said, “There’s absolutely no way you could make the screen, get that memory, camera, battery, everything” in the US. He reckoned it would take “at least five years” just to put the infrastructure in place.
About the only thing that the Trump Organisation could do is get a wireless service. It would just rent service from a real carrier and slap a logo on it.
So, what about all those people who have stumped up cash to pre-order the phone – what will they get and when will they get it? It is most likely that in the short term they will get a phone which is made in the same place as everyone else. It might be assembled in the United States but even that is unlikely. If it arrives on time, and at that price then it will be coming from the Far East and may even be subject to Trump’s beautiful tariffs.