--- title: "The “Made in America” Trump Phone Appears to be a Disguised Cheapo Chinese Smartphone" description: "Nearly nine months late, questions remain on how American — or Chinese — Trump Mobile's flagship phone truly is." date: "2026-05-20" modified: "2026-05-20" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/made-america-trump-phone-chinese" categories: - "Computing" - "Devices" - "Robots and Machines" --- # The “Made in America” Trump Phone Appears to be a Disguised Cheapo Chinese Smartphone ![A gold-colored smartphone with "TRUMP MOBILE" displayed on the screen.]() *Getty / Futurism* Nine months after it was supposed to ship to consumers, the smartphone nobody asked for is finally here. Introducing Trump Mobile's T1, a long-awaited smartphone designed to skim a little cash from America's most credulous rubes. Announced on June 16, 2025 — the 10-year anniversary of the [surreal launch]() of Donald Trump's first presidential campaign — the T1 was originally supposed to go out to buyers in either August or September of 2025, depending on which [Trump family announcement]() you read. Now, nearly a year behind schedule, the T1 is finally here. Select media personalities were the first to get their hands on the product, a 5G smartphone [aggressively branded]() with "Trump Mobile" logos as well as Trump's signature yellow-gold colorway. As [*NBC* noted]() in their review of the phone, the phone comes pre-loaded with Trump's pet social media company, Truth Social, and features an American flag with only 11 stripes on the back, which is two less than the genuine article. And though early Trump Mobile marketing material pushed the "Made in America" angle hard, a closer look reveals that the T1 appears to actually be a generic smartphone manufactured abroad. Starting in June 2025, critics noted the announced T1 closely resembled the Revvl 7 Pro 5G, a phone made by the partially state-owned Chinese company Wingtech. As Todd Weaver, CEO of American smartphone manufacturer Purism [told *CNN*]() at the time: "unless the Trump family secretly built out a secure, onshore or nearshore (fabrication) operation over years of work without anyone noticing, it's simply not possible to deliver what they're promising." That skepticism proved prescient. In the months since the T1 was first announced, Trump Mobile changed its marketing material to show a different phone entirely. While that seemed to silence critics of the original model, an eagle-eyed [*Verge* reader]() noted the new unit looks bears a striking similarity to *another* foreign-built phone, the two-year old HTC U24 Pro. On top of visual similarities, that phone shares some key technical details with the T1: both feature a 6.8-inch OLED screen, three 50 megapixel cameras, and 12GB of RAM. Given that HTC is headquartered in Taiwan, it's likely the T1 is assembled in the same Taiwanese plant as the U24. Still, it remains to be seen where the individual components are sourced from; it could easily be the case that the T1's bones come from China, which dominates the world in [OLED displays]() and [battery cell]() production. But until one of the nearly 600,000 customers who preordered the T1 gets a chance to crack one of the smartphones open and document the components found inside, it will remain a mystery as to just how American — or Chinese — Trump Mobile's flagship device really is. We'll be watching. **More on Trump:** *[Trump Caught Buying Tech Stocks and Then Pumping Their Value by Publicly Praising Them]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()