Sometimes, it’s a political statement wrapped in gold.
And sometimes, it’s a $499 mid-range Android that never actually ships.
Meet the T1 Phone 8002 (Gold Version), better known as the Trump Phone, a device that promised to “revolutionize mobile calling” and ended up as the weirdest vaporware story of 2025.
The timeline
June: “Made in America” (ish)
Trump Mobile’s “American-made” phone — brought to you by Photoshop and irony. | Image credit-Trump Mobile
It all started back in June, when Eric and Don Jr. announced Trump Mobile, complete with its own carrier plan — “The 47 Plan”, a $47.45-per-month service (subtle, I know) — and the star of the show: the golden T1 Phone, supposedly “designed and built in the United States.”The specs were the following: a 6.78-inch, 120Hz OLED display; 12GB of RAM; a “5000mAh long life camera”; and the pièce de résistance, a triple-camera system that looked suspiciously like an iPhone — if an intern (or an apprentice, wink-wink) had made it from memory.
By all accounts, it was a love letter to American values, but one that was manufactured via Photoshop.
Within days, however, the magic words “Made in the USA” vanished from the Trump Mobile site. In their place came a new slogan: “Designed with American values in mind.”Translation: probably assembled somewhere with fewer eagles and more Foxconn.
July–September: Preorders, press releases, and a disappearing date
The company started taking $100 deposits for preorders, promising an August launch. Then September. Then — depending on which version of the website you saw — maybe later that year.
Trump Mobile stopped claiming the phone was American-made, shrunk the screen to 6.25 inches, and quietly removed any mention of RAM. Meanwhile, a few journalists noticed something even stranger: the official Trump Phone images looked… familiar.
As in, Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra familiar. | Image credit — Trump Mobile / Spigen
In one tweet (later deleted), Trump Mobile had apparently pasted a gold case and “T1” logo over a photo of a Galaxy, leaving Spigen’s logo still visible on the phone case.
The case company’s response: “lawsuit incoming…”
October: The sound of silence
When October rolled around, USA Today confirmed that Trump Mobile had pushed the launch yet again. A spokesperson promised the phone would arrive that month. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.By mid-October, the company had gone completely dark. No posts on social media since August 27. No replies to press emails. Just one lonely website promising the T1 would ship “later this year.” Technically, that statement is accurate, but it is also increasingly elastic.
Even the company’s own network was overshadowed by the mystery of the missing device. “Unlimited talk, text, and data” sounded pretty nice, but the only thing anyone wanted to know was: Where is the phone?
November: “American hands behind every device”
By the end of the year, the T1’s description had evolved into full performance art. The site now claimed there were “American hands behind every device” and that it offered “Premium Performance. Proudly American.”None of that, to be clear, meant it existed. Trump Mobile hadn’t shipped a single phone. Not one buyer had confirmed delivery. The company had also quietly added refurbished iPhones and Samsung phones to its site, which was perhaps an admission that, for now, other people’s phones were easier to sell than imaginary ones.
Meanwhile, tech reporters were left refreshing Trump Mobile’s page like hopeful investors checking stock prices. Dominic Preston of The Verge even wrote, “People of lesser faith might worry this phone is vaporware, but I refuse to give up.”
Bless his optimism.
The $499 symbol
It’s easy to mock the Trump Phone (and we should), but it’s also a near-perfect metaphor: a golden promise, one that slowly peels away to reveal something recycled (in this case a Samsung) underneath.
What started as “Made in America” morphed into “Made somewhere, maybe.” What was marketed as a new flagship entering the game became a minor side note in the tech industry. And yet, somehow, it still generated enough preorders to make headlines and lawsuits.
I have to admit, there’s a part of me that wants the Trump Phone to be real too. I want to hold this mythical device and take a totally sub-par selfie with its “long life camera” as I bask in the glow of its patriotic gold paint job. But maybe the T1 was never meant to exist outside the bounds of being “just a vibe.”
“Fugayzi, fugazi. It’s a whazy. It’s a woozie. It’s fairy dust.”
Hope you caught that reference… If not, give The Wolf of Wall Street a watch. | Image credit — Getty Images / Joe Raedle
So where is the Trump Phone now?
Nowhere. Everywhere. It’s a $499 illusion — a golden promise that turned into a $100 problem for everyone who believed it. Hundreds of people paid deposits for a phone that never shipped, and months later, there’s still no sign of refunds, updates, or even basic communication.
As one frustrated Redditor put it:
The tell is that they are accepting $100 deposits for a non-existent phone… Anyone in tech will tell you, you don’t go from “concept” to delivery of a new cell phone in three months.
Trump Mobile’s website still claims the T1 will arrive “later this year,” but that line has been there so long it’s practically fossilized. The company’s last post was in August; its inboxes, silent ever since.
At this point, the Trump Phone exists only as a lesson in vaporware politics — a campaign of hype that cashed in on loyalty, not technology. Maybe it’s sitting in a warehouse somewhere next to the Cybertruck’s dignity and the unsold Freedom Phones.
For everyone else, it’s just fairy dust. The kind that costs you a hundred bucks.
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