Trump Phone Finally Shipping After Year-Long Delay, Critics Question Value

Our long national nightmare is almost over. The Trump phone is allegedly shipping this week, the company claims. This has been quite the saga, as these gold-hued smartphones were supposed to reach customers all the way back in August (and then October.) It's now nearly a year after the original announcement, leading many fans of the president to cry foul over the prospect of having their pockets picked — especially since the company quietly rewrote its terms to state there was no guarantee the phone would ever be released. It's been reported that nearly 600,000 people forked over $100 as a deposit for the phone, to the tune of almost $60 million. Why did it take so long to push what looks to be a middling Android phone out the door? A spokesperson for Trump Mobile, a carrier founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, didn't get into the why of it all but did say that the "delays were worth it in our minds as we are delivering an amazing product." So what is this amazing product? The T1 is a gold Android phone with average specs that costs anywhere from $500 to $1,000. It reportedly has a Snapdragon chip of some kind, a 50MP main camera and a 5000 mAh battery. The camera and battery seem decent, but those specs were sourced from Trump Mobile. The phone was announced as being made in the USA but that was quickly reversed once the company got its hands on some of that deposit money. Trump Mobile now says the phones were "designed with American values in mind." Again, this is a decidedly average Android phone with no real unique elements. The first gold iPhone, the 5s, came out all the way back in 2013. Trump Mobile isn't just selling Android phones at a markup. It sells coverage plans. The 5G plan costs $47.45 per month, which is a nod to President Trump's two terms in office. The company sells a number of used Samsung and Apple devices, also at rather large markups. It's selling a refurbished iPhone 15 with 128GB of storage for $630. The average price for this exact model via other retailers sits at around $300 to $350.