“This is the sort of thing you’d see in a banana republic,” Lessig said. “The danger is always that this becomes the channel through which improper influence flows.”
Trump has said he is not involved with his family business while in the White House, and Trump’s sons have said they follow all “legal and ethical obligations”.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.” The Trump Organisation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump Mobile promotional materials said the service will work with “all three major carriers”, offer free calls to more than 100 countries and carry a coast-to-coast 5G signal. Representatives for the carriers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The service resembles an increasingly popular offering, known as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), which buys phone and data capabilities from the major wireless networks.
One such service, Mint Mobile, funded in part by an investment from actor Ryan Reynolds, was purchased by T-Mobile in 2023 for US$1.3 billion. The celebrity hosts of the SmartLess podcast announced their own brand last week.
MVNOs generally require regulatory approvals, such as federal licensing requirements and state registrations. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not respond to requests for comment.
The company will compete with firms that the Trump administration has loudly criticised. Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee who leads the FCC, has chastised T-Mobile and Verizon over their diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and Trump has attacked Apple for making its iPhones overseas.
As part of its service, Trump Mobile said it would unveil a US$499 smartphone, called the T1, that would run on the Android operating system and feature an in-screen fingerprint sensor. A mock-up image of the phone on the company’s website shows a gold-coloured device labelled with an American flag.
Eric Trump said on a podcast that the phones will “eventually all … be built in the United States”, without offering a clear timeline. But the proposal inspired an immediate wave of doubt among telecoms experts, given that the vast majority of components included in iPhones and Android devices are now built overseas.
The company did not disclose who would manufacture the device and phone specialists at two tech blogs, the Verge and AppleInsider, said its proposed price, technical specifications and production date seemed “extremely unlikely” and “utterly unfathomable”.
Paolo Pescatore, a telecom analyst, said the idea seemed plausible but that it “raises more questions than answers”, especially because the company has yet to provide details about its relationship with other telecom players. If it was easy to build phones domestically, “others would have already done” it, Pescatore said. “It takes time to have the right supply chain in place.”
Gerrit Schneemann, a senior analyst at Counterpoint who researches the telecom industry, said the idea of mass-producing a modern smartphone in the United States is not possible right now because nearly all of the phones Americans use now are built in countries such as China, India and South Korea.
The mock-up and technical specifications of the golden phone, Schneemann said, “looks suspiciously” like a T-Mobile REVVL 7, which is produced in China. He estimated the company could seek to use refurbished or internationally created devices while trying to shore up a domestic supply chain, but said the endeavour would be extraordinarily challenging. He noted that Apple chief Tim Cook recently said most of the iPhones sold in the United States are made in India.
“If Apple can’t do it, a licensing deal that someone did with the Trump Organisation probably can’t, either,” Schneemann added.
Trump Mobile said its base calling plan, the “47 Plan,” will be priced at US$47.45 a month and come with “24/7 roadside assistance” and “telehealth services, including virtual medical care”. Details of those services were not provided.
The cable TV providers Spectrum and Xfinity, which work similarly to Trump Mobile in piggybacking on other companies’ existing mobile networks, offer unlimited monthly data plans for as little as US$30 a month. Smaller mobile phone providers that also use the same approach as Trump Mobile, such as Mint Mobile, Google Fi and Consumer Cellular, can cost even less.
The Trump Mobile service will be run by a separate business called T1 Mobile, which will license the Trump brand.
In a public filing on Friday (local time), the President reported more than US$600 million in income and US$1.6b in assets, including cryptocurrency holdings, income from his properties, and various merchandise and marketing arrangements.
The tallies reflect his finances in 2024, before he was elected for a second term.
Trump made US$1.3m in royalties from a Trump-endorsed Bible and more than US$5m from sales of Trump-brand fragrances, sneakers and watches.
