The Trump family is clamoring to contain a MAGA revolt over their latest business venture.
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s phone company announced that its first smartphone will ship to customers this week—following a revolt from those who paid for the T-1 smartphone under the guise that it would be delivered in August.
Nearly 600,000 people paid a $100 deposit for the Trump mobile device, a venture launched in June by Trump’s two oldest sons. A year on, the T-1’s release has been delayed several times, initially pushed from August to October, then again with no definite release date.
As backlash erupted on social media, Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien told USA Today on Wednesday that phones would soon begin shipping to customers.
“Those delays were worth it in our minds as we are delivering an amazing product,” O’Brien told the outlet. He added that all customers who paid a deposit for the $499 gold phone would receive their device within the next few weeks. Trump Mobile did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
Even if true, that’s still too little, too late for some MAGA loyalists.
“Hey, Trump supporter here,” one man said in a now-viral TikTok video from earlier this month. “This one goes out to Don Jr. and Eric…where the f–k’s my phone? I ordered three, no four gold Trump phones in the summer.”
It’s not clear what’s behind the T-1’s lengthy delays. Top executives last year chalked it up to the “government shutdown,” which ended in November (except for a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that stretched into 2026).
The delay could also partly be related to Don Jr. and Eric’s proclamation last year that the phone would be manufactured in the United States, with “MADE IN AMERICA” initially displayed on the company’s website.
Just days after that bold statement, the president’s sons quickly backtracked. The phrase was quietly scrubbed from the website and replaced with the more modest claim that the phone was “brought to life right here in the USA” with “American hands.”
Now, the T1 is being marketed as “designed with American values in mind,” “shaped by American innovation,” and backed by “American teams helping guide design and quality.”
Another contributing factor could potentially be Trump Mobile’s leaders—none of whom have a background in smartphones.
Little is known about Trump Mobile CEO O’Brien. It’s reported that his previous experience was at Omega Auto Care, part of the Missouri-based insurance company Ensurety Ventures. Bizarrely, Ensurety Ventures handles Trump Mobile customer service—even though the company is headquartered in Trump Tower in Miami.
Other key executives at Trump Mobile hail from insurance, real estate, and pager businesses. In other words: not smartphones.
In a June news release announcing the phone company—which launched on the tenth anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign announcement—Don Jr. bragged that “Trump Mobile is going to change the game, we’re building on the movement to put America first, and we will deliver the highest levels of quality and service.”
Prices start at $47.45 per month, an homage to their father’s two presidential terms. Phone companies including Mint Mobile, Ultra Mobile, and Boost Mobile, among others, offer plans as low as $10 per month.
