Ever since the Trump Organization officially launched its Trump Mobile on June 16, 2025, at the Trump Tower in New York City, the hype has been around the plans to unveil its first smartphone, the T1. It is considered an iPhone 17 competitor and is coming around at the same time as Apple’s flagship phone. While the company has been promoting the device as “Made in the USA,” the reality is rather ironic, as the phone is said to be manufactured in China.

Trump Mobile has been promoting its upcoming T1 smartphone as a U.S.-made alternative to the iPhone 17, but the branding seems to be different from reality

To celebrate the 10-year mark since Donald Trump first announced his presidential run, the Trump Organization stepped into the mobile category by launching its first, all-new mobile network called Trump Mobile. The Trump brand has held a patriotic image from the beginning, with slogans like “Make America Great Again” and pushing for more local jobs and production so the country progresses. Similarly, when promoting its services, it has followed similar branding and presented itself as an “all-American service.”

These offerings range from U.S.-based customer support to a range of bundled services, and now the plan is to introduce a new smartphone called the T1 to come out at the same time as the iPhone 17. Given that it capitalizes on Trump’s branding, which is “Made in the USA,” it could potentially attract a lot of Trump supporters who would support the mobile network for what it stands for.

The only problem is that, contrary to the Trump Organization’s claim about its upcoming smartphone being made in the U.S., it is manufactured in China, and in short, a cost-friendly Android device rebranded with a new plastic casing to increase the markup and present the device as locally made. The patriotic brand that is meant to take a dig at Apple for using phrases like designed by Apple in California but being assembled in China or India, and is itself being called a reskinned phone, as social media users were able to trace the origins of the T1 within an hour.

Max Weinbach, an analyst, shared a post on X to highlight the striking similarities between the upcoming T1 smartphone and the T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G, suggesting that it is a rebranded version of an existing T-Mobile phone. The T-Mobile phone in consideration is manufactured by a Chinese-owned company called Wingtech.

Trump Mobile, on the other hand, can be categorized into two offerings: the phone plan and the smartphone. While much has been done to present the services as impressive, from a consumer perspective, it does not have much going on compared to the competitors. Trump Mobile is said to be a mobile virtual network operator, but it does not have its own infrastructure and relies on other major U.S. carriers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, to carry out the service. What was expected to be a new network is basically reselling access to ones built by others.

So while the T1 phone can be modified in the U.S., it is not assembled or designed locally, as the design and production seem to be rooted in China, making the claim misleading or untrue.