In a move that should surprise no one, the Trump Mobile T1 phone will likely not be “Made in the USA” as had been originally claimed. Announced as part of the Trump Organization’s newly launched wireless service, the T1 had been touted as an example of the Trump administration’s push to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., but that apparently won’t apply to this device.
Instead, the Trump Mobile website has changed the language around the phone, with the T1 now lasted as featuring an “American Proud Design.”
It’s an obfuscating phrase that will invite comparisons to how Apple packaging reads “Designed by Apple in California.” Of course, it’s no secret that Apple’s iPhone are built outside the U.S., with the company shifting some production to India and Vietnam in order to avoid tariffs imposed against by the Trump administration on products originating in China.
Of course, that may be where the T1 phone originates from. A CNN report after the phone was launched noted the difficulty in building phones in the U.S. — there’s not the assembly facilities here to make smartphones on a large scale. Instead, the report claimed, the T1 was most likely coming from a Chinese original device manufacturer.
It’s widely believed that Wingtech may be the firm building the T1. The Chinese manufacturer also makes the Revvl 7 Pro 5G phone for T-Mobile, and that device has many of the same specs as the Trump Mobile-branded phone.
At any rate, the Trump Mobile website has backed off the “Made in the USA” claims that originally appeared. “It’s brought to life right here in the USA,” the website now reads. “With American hands behind every device, we bring care, precision, and trusted quality to every detail.”
It’s hard to even get a “made in the USA” stamp on products. As our friends at Tech Radar found, “The FTC [Federal Trade Commission] has a strict standard for “Made in USA”: all or almost all parts and processing must be domestic. Judging by that standard, the claim is unrealistic.”
Trump Mobile is an offshot from the Trump Organization, a business now operated by President Trump’s children. The wireless business is launching at the same time the president is pushing companies like Apple to manufacture their products in the U.S. In May, the president threatened a 25% tariff on Apple unless the company moved iPhone production to the United States.
It’s not impossible for Apple to eventually shift some production to the US, but not at the scale and speed that Trump has demanded.
Currently, the tariff war between the U.S. and China is on pause with a smaller 10% tax on Chinese goods as the two countries attempt to negotiate an economic deal. It’s unclear if Trump Mobile’s T1 phone will be subject to any levies or tariffs.
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