Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trump Mobile promoted a 'Made in the USA' phone - but the details kept changing

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Trump Mobile promoted a 'Made in the USA' phone - but the details kept changing · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So this guy's still waiting for his Trump phones.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Hey Trump supporter. Here this goes out to Dodge Junior
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and Eric.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: What my bounds. More than a year after pre ordering
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: from the Trump Mobile company launched by the President suns,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: his phones haven't arrived, and the phones that have been
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: released they look very different to the ones that were
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: advertised a year ago. I've been tracking how Trump Mobiles
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: claims and promotion around the phones, designs, specs, manufacturer and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: delivery date have changed over and over again. A phone
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that is named after Trump, but it's not being sold
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: by the President or the Trump organization. The company has
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a license to use his name, but the presidents made
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: no income from that license. So let's start all of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this off on the sixteenth of June last year, when
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Trump Mobile was launched.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: When my father announced his candidacy for president, he transformed
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: American politics forever. Now Eric and I are changing the
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: cell phone industry with Trump.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Mobile, alongside an all American mobile phone service. A Trump
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Mobile statement also announced a T one phone to be
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: released in August twenty twenty five. It would be a sleek,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: gold smartphone proudly designed and built in the United States
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: that day, this man, Steven Red Junior, a software developer
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: in Delaware, says he got a call from his father,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Stephen Reid Senior, an oil worker and Trump supporter, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you saw his video earlier on.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: This goes out to Dodge Junior and erg. So he
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: calls me. He's like, they're coming out with these Trump phones.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: There was a spur of the moment, like literally, I
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: didn't know about them one day and then the next day,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I'm buying four, you know what I mean? Like it
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: because he called me and he was so adamant, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: so when I looked at it, I was like, all right, Cools.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I was like, let's buy one. He was like, no, no, no,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: we got to buy more than one.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So they went here to the Trump mobile website. The
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: site's being changed NI, but we saved an archive of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: it at the time and it said are maide in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the USA, T one phone is available for pre order nine.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: In the end, the Reids say they pre ordered four phones,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: paying four hundred dollars in deposits. The website said the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: phone would now be available in September twenty twenty five.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: We don't know for sure how many others pre ordered
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the phones. We've asked Trump Mobile but haven't heard back.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren says it's nearly six hundred thousand,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: so that would be almost sixty million dollars in deposits.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: We've not been able to verify her figure. We asked
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Senator Warren's office for the source, but we didn't receive
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a response. As well as using the Trump name to
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: appeal to customers, the company was tapping into the president's
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: promised to bring manufacturing jobs back to America, But right
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: from the get go, industry experts were skeptical that it
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: would even be possible for Trump Mobile to build a
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: smartphone in the US. What did you think when you
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: first heard this claim that it was going to be
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: entirely made in the US.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: When I first heard that a Trump phone would be
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: sold and made entirely US, I was taken aback. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: was like, how are they going to do this? Basically,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: your phone, your laptop, your tech it's made from parts
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: and resources and minerals that come from every part of
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: the globe, and then you have to have someone really
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: skilled and affordable to put all that together and then
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: ship it to you.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Within ten days of the Trump mobile website going live,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the information on it started to change. Instead of saying
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the T one phone would be made in the USA,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: the website now said it would have an American Pride
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: design with American hands behind every device. The delivery dates
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: had changed too. Instead of August or September, it would
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: now be released later in twenty twenty five. Jump forward
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: two months and Trump Mobile posted this on social media
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and subsequently deleted it. This is a version archived at
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the time. The weight is almost over with another promotional
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: picture of the T one phone. But you've probably noticed
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that this phone isn't the same as the one previously
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: featured on the Trump Mobile website. So two months after
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Trump Mobile's launch, key details on the website, delivery date,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and phone design have all changed. I asked Trump Mobile
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: multiple times why that happens, but I didn't hear back
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: from them. By January of twenty twenty six, over half
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: a year since the pre orders opened, Stephen June was
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: starting to lose hope.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I felt, especially as time went on, that there was
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: just absolutely no chance that these phones were gonna end
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: up in my hands.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Even as Dad Trump supporter Stephen Senior, was fed up
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and asked Stephen Junior to post these videos on TikTok,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: all addressed towards the Trump Mobile company. We've leeped out
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a few bad words, give me.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: My Trump phone or give me my money back. We're
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: going on a year now, it's still no. That was
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: when I started to have the conversation with him, like, dude,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: does this make you feel different about Trump? And it
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: was immediately No, It's not Trump's fault. It's his kid's fault.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: We asked the White House whether President Trump has had
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: any involvement in Trump Mobile, but they told us to
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: speak to the Trump Organization, which is run by the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: president's sons, Donald Jr. And Derek, but we didn't hear
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: back from them. At the bottom of the Trump Mobile website, though,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: it says Trump Mobile's products aren't designed, developed, manufacture, distributed,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: or sold by the Trump Organization, although as we've seen,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the president's suns promoted it when the phone was launched.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And it also says down here that a private company
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: called t one Mobile uses the Trump name and trademarks
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: under a limited license agreement. And in President Trump's financial
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: disclosure which he's required to publish as president, the entry
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: about that agreement shows no income in twenty twenty five. Okay,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: now back to the phones, because by April twenty twenty six,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: we've got more pictures of what the T one phone
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: might look like, and for the third time, a new
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: illustrative design shaped by American innovation. The website said, with
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: American teams helping guide design and quality. That's quite different
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: from the initial promotion of made in the USA, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: new terms were added to the Trump Mobile website too.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: It now says the deposits only provide a conditional opportunity
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: if Trump Mobile decides to offer the phone for sale.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: The deposit does not lock in pricing, even though the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: banner at the top of the same web page says
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: lock in your T one Phone promotional pricing now at
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: four hundred and ninety nine dollars. The terms say the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: phone's appearance, performance, specifications, features, network compatibilities, and shipping dates.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: None of them are guaranteed either. In fact, the term
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: say Trump Mobile does not guarantee that a device will
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: be produced at all, but deposits would then be refunded.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Fast forward again to the thirteenth of May and we
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: get this post. The T one phone has arrived and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: it's shipping this week along with another new promotional video. Now,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to be clear, the Trump Phone is real, and in
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the last few months it's been sent to some media
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: outlets and content creators.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I understand wanting to have something made in the USA,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: but when I look at the Trump Phone, beyond the
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: American flag that's on the phone, this does not seem
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: like it was made in the USA. The amount of
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: tech inside all phones, Apple, Google, Sabsung, whatever brand you
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: want to name, it comes from all over the world.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Now, we have seen a few social media posts that
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: appear to be from regular customers who say they've got
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: their phones too, but the Reeds aren't among them. When
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I first started speaking to Stephen Junior, we planned to
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: do an unboxing together of his new T one phones
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: when they came, and he told me they did get
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: an order processing email at the start of June. But
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Stephen Junior thinks the final product won't be what they
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: thought they were buying.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: What made you think that you could realistically make them
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: in America but also meet the demand of you know
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: that meet that timeframe, that window that you set out
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: from when you announced them to when you said they
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: were going to ship. What made you think or did
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: you even think that that was even going to be
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: feasible right like? Or did you just say screw it?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: You know, we'll play it by ear.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: We asked Trump Mobile if they have anything to say
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to customers like the Reeds, but we haven't heard back
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: from them,