(Credit: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Trump family is giving Ryan Reynolds a run for his money with Trump Mobile, a new wireless carrier offering 5G service with unlimited calls, texts, and data for $47.45 a month.
Other benefits include telehealth services, international calls to over 100 countries, Drive America roadside assistance, and "complete device protection."
Trump Mobile will operate as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it taps into existing US networks (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) and resells those companies' services. Plan perks are also provided by third-party services—Omega Mobile Care for device protection, Driven Solutions Inc. for roadside assistance, and Doctegrity for telehealth.
(Credit: Trump Mobile)Essentially, the Trump Organization is lending its name to this venture as it has done with various other products. President Trump's son, Eric Trump, is promoting Trump Mobile, but as the fine print notes, "Trump Mobile, its products and services are not designed, developed, manufactured, distributed or sold by The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals. T1 Mobile LLC uses the 'Trump' name and trademark pursuant to the terms of a limited license agreement, which may be terminated or revoked according to its terms."
President Trump also doesn't appear on the Trump Mobile website or marketing materials, though the $47.45 monthly price tag for its "47 Plan" is an obvious nod to Donald, who is the 45th and 47th US president. (He hasn't mentioned it on his Truth Social network today.)
Still, DTTM Operations LLC, which manages Donald Trump’s trademarks, submitted two applications on June 12 for a wireless service and "T1," according to trademark lawyer Josh Gerben, who first reported the news.
T1 is a reference to a $499 smartphone that Trump Mobile plans to release this year. (The press release says August, but the website says September.) Any unlocked phone will work on Trump Mobile, though the company is pitching the T1 as a "sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier," it says. (Some experts are skeptical of that made-in-America claim.) You can preorder the phone now with a $100 deposit.
(Credit: Trump Mobile)There’s a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, but we’ve yet to learn the resolution of the screen. There’s 12GB of RAM, but we don’t know which chipset will power the handset. Other features include a 50MP main camera, 2MP depth sensor, 2MP macro camera, 256GB of internal storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 20W fast-charging.
Interestingly, this phone will bring back two features many handsets no longer have: microSD support and a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired headphones.
It will run Android 15 at launch, though a teaser image of the phone suggests it may have its own tweaked software rather than running stock Android.
Gerben notes in his blog post that T-Mobile might have a problem with the trademark application. He writes, “It would seem unlikely that T-Mobile could sit back and let the ‘T1’ trademark proceed without a fight. This is because allowing another “T”-formative mark in the mobile phone space would almost undoubtedly dilute the company’s rights in the T-Mobile mark.”