A gold-coloured smartphone bearing President Donald Trump’s name that was announced nearly a year ago has still not shipped, and the fine print buried in the Trump Mobile website’s terms and conditions raises serious questions about whether it ever will.
The T1 Phone was unveiled in June 2025 at Trump Tower in New York by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump alongside other Trump Mobile representatives, billed as a “sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States.”
The “built in the United States” language disappeared from the website shortly after the launch and has not returned, with the current site replacing it with language describing the phone as “designed with American values in mind” and “shaped by American innovation.”
The phone was initially slated for delivery in August 2025, a deadline that has long passed without the device reaching customers, and no new official release date has been announced as of May 2026.
Trump Mobile began taking $100 deposits for the T1 Phone at the time of its announcement, with the device listed at a promotional price of $499 before deposit, and a report from International Business Times estimated that approximately 600,000 people may have placed those deposits.
The terms and conditions page of the Trump Mobile website, sitting beneath a header reading “No Guarantee of Release, Delivery or Timing,” includes language that explicitly acknowledges the phone may never materialise at all.
“Trump Mobile does not guarantee that: the Device will be commercially released; regulatory approvals (including FCC authorization) will be obtained; carrier certification will be secured; production will commence or continue; or delivery will occur within any specific timeframe,” the site reads.
The terms also state that estimated ship dates and launch timelines are “non-binding estimates only,” and that customers who placed deposits will receive full refunds either if they choose to cancel or if Trump Mobile “cancels or discontinues the Device offering prior to sale.”
Adding a further layer of uncertainty, the terms note that the $100 deposit does not lock in the promotional price, with the company reserving the right to set final pricing at the time of actual purchase and giving customers the opportunity to accept or reject those terms before completing a transaction.
One data point suggesting the project has not been entirely abandoned arrived in March 2026, when USA Today reported the T1 Phone had received PTCRB certification, a standard confirming the device meets network compatibility requirements in North America, implying some degree of active development has continued behind the scenes.
The Trump Mobile wireless service itself is currently operational, accepting customers who use other phones including refurbished Apple or Samsung handsets available through the Trump Mobile website, with customer service available to help prospective switchers confirm their existing device’s compatibility with the network.
