A Trump related business could be breaching the “Made in America” policy by not making the Trump T1 Phone 8002 in the US.
Technology publication The Verge has raised this prospect after examining changes to the website promoting the T1 8002 Gold Version.
“One of the phone’s main selling points was that it was to be made in America,” says The Verge.
“We figured that was unlikely to be true. And we were right: sometime in the last several days, the Trump Mobile site appears to have been scrubbed of all language indicating the phone is to be made in the USA.”
It says a huge banner on the homepage that says the T1 is MADE IN THE USA has gone, to name one example.
Indeed our examination of the website promoting the T1 says it is “proudly American”, “Designed with American values in mind”, has an “American-Proud Design”, has “American hands behind every device”. But today, when we looked, there is no explicit mention of the phone being made in America.
A footnote to the promotion site says 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.”
T1 Mobile appears to be a company associated with President Trump’s sons Donald Jr and Eric.
Channel News Australia has reached out to The White House for clarification.
According to its Wikipedia entry, T1 Mobile was launched in June 2025 (this month) as a venture by Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump and is a licensed brand of the Trump organisation. It was launched on June 16 which was the 10th anniversary of the announcement of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The Wikipedia entry said Trump’s two sons announced the smartphones would be “exclusively manufactured within the United States with the goal to encourage other multi-industry companies to manufacture their products in the US”.
However, the Wikipedia entry pointed to analysts who said there wasn’t fabrication plants and factories that would enable the phone to be made within the country.
Earlier versions of the Trump T1 phone included a signature MADE IN THE USA claim which is now missing. Picture: Getty Images
The Huffington Post quoted Tinglong Dai, a global supply chains expert at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, who said: “This phone is essentially a licensing deal.”
“The Trump Organization doesn’t design, manufacture or sell it; they’ve simply lent their name,” he explained. “That makes the idea of leading a US-based manufacturing effort even less credible.”
CNN meanwhile says experts had pointed out “striking similarities between the T1’s specifications and an already available, Chinese-made phone”.
CNN Business quoted another industry expert.
“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,” said Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, one of the only known companies to actually manufacture a cell phone in the United States.
The dispute over the manufacture of this phone comes in the wake of President Trump one month ago heavily criticising Apple and CEO Tim Cook for moving production of iPhones from China to India. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook,” the president said at the time.
The Verge also noticed changes to some of the phone’s specs. “There are numerous errors on the page, from a processor section that doesn’t list a processor, RAM that’s described as storage, and the boast of a “5000mAh long life camera,” when it presumably means the battery.”
It noted that the triple camera array on the back looked similar to the iPhone Pro, except for the absence of a camera flash.
Originally published in Channel News Australia, 26 June 2025