Lies, lies and more lies. Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda has practically broken every single promise he made to his supporters when he was on the campaign trial. Trump claimed that he was all about “America First” and that he would work for the American people, but that was an obvious lie because he was and still is literally working on behalf of Israel and of course, Big Oil when he decided to start a new war against Iran that resulted in a humiliating defeat for the US military.

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Trump had promised that he was going to bring manufacturing jobs to the US by pushing his tariff policies on the planet in order to force both American and foreign companies to make products in the US, and that these same companies would pay the tariffs, but that did not happen, instead it turned out that the US consumer would end up paying for the tariffs. Trump’s reckless tariff policies ultimately backfired in his face when US courts finally ruled against him because he had no constitutional authority and did not follow international trade laws.

Now there is something going on with Trump’s ‘T1 Gold Phone’ about being “Made in the USA” which may be another lie which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point in time. Trump’s T1 Gold Phone was supposed to be “Made in the USA” which was about putting “America First” right? Well, not quite. According to various reports, Trump’s phone may not even be manufactured in the US. 

Back on June 17th, 2025, The Verge, which was one of the first online news websites that focuses on technology issues who has been investigating Trump’s T1 Gold Phone since its introduction had published an interesting article, ‘Who is really behind the Trump Mobile T1 phone? Our money’s on one of these Chinese ODMs, but which phone is it?’ said that “A spokesperson for the Trump Organization doubled down on this claim to The Wall Street Journal, saying “manufacturing for the new phone will be in Alabama, California and Florida.” Ok, that’s interesting, but does the US really have that type of capability to produce such a complicated mobile device, and if they did, how much would it actually cost?  

But unless the organization has somehow hidden an entire domestic mobile device supply chain right under our noses, this is virtually impossible. The T1 Phone, as it’s called, lists some decent midrange specs like a 6.8-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate screen. Offering it for $500 as soon as this fall? That would take a miracle. Case in point: a company called Purism makes a device called the Liberty Phone, which sources many of its parts from US companies and assembles it here. The cost? $2000, and you won’t find something as luxurious as an OLED panel there 

A report published on May 19th, 2026 by the UK-based, The Independent, ‘The Trump cell phone has finally arrived – but is no longer ‘Made in the  USA’ and the American flag design is missing two stripes’ said that

“The gold-plated $499 phone is no longer marketed as “Made in the USA,” and the American flag design on the back of the handset appears to have 11 stripes instead of 13″ which is a major error especially for the average MAGA supporter who are the majority of the people who invested in the $499 phone. “The Android-operated device was first promoted as “Made in the USA” in June 2025, CNN and NBC News noted. But Trump Mobile has since changed the language on its website to “designed with American values in mind.”

Let me get this straight, Trump was promoting “America First” by promising to bring manufacturing jobs to the US by enforcing his tariffs on all countries who export to the US and force them to make those same products in the US, now the world is finding out that his own T1 Gold Phone is made somewhere else?

So, is the Trump T1 Gold phone actually made in China or in Taiwan?  

“Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien told USA Today that the phones were “assembled” in the U.S. and that models will use components “primarily manufactured in America.” Tech experts told NBC News that the phone appears to resemble an HTC U-24 Pro, which is made in Taiwan.

“It looks physically very similar, and that matches with what we’ve been told so far,” Shahram Mokhtari, an engineer at tech repair company iFixit told NBC News

Another recent article published by the International Business Times, ‘Trump Gold Phone Scam? ‘Made in USA’ Mobile Likely Sourced in China, Release Date Delays Raise More Questions’ said that

“The smartphone, launched under Donald Trump’s family-backed Trump Mobile brand, was originally introduced as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung devices.” 

But was it a patriotic alternative?

How could the T1 phone be manufactured in the US when it doesn’t have the capability to produce such a product?

Early marketing for the T1 repeatedly emphasized that the phone would be built in the United States, a major selling point for many conservative supporters who pre-ordered the device. However, technology analysts quickly questioned whether such a product could realistically be manufactured domestically, given the lack of large-scale smartphone assembly infrastructure in the U.S.

Within weeks, Trump Mobile reportedly altered language on its website, replacing ‘Made in the USA’ references with softer wording that described the device as being ‘designed with American values.’ The change fueled speculation that the phone may actually rely on Chinese manufacturing or imported components

When the Trump T1 Gold phone was first announced, it was all about it being made in the USA, but then things started to take a different turn.  According to a media company based in India, Times Now news said that Trump’s T1 Gold phone is linked to a Chinese company called Wingtech, a manufacturer based in the city of Shenzhen claimed that the phone resembles the REVVL 7 pro 5G as its described below:

However, The Verge, published another article on the subject, ‘The Trump Phone is Not Here’ which claimed that the Trump T1 Gold Phone might be manufactured in Taiwan?

Others say the phone is based on the $250 T-Mobile Revvl 7 Pro 5G — we considered the same back when the T1 was first announced, but the latest version of the phone doesn’t match the Revvl at all. Some publications are even reporting that the phone is made in China — it might well be, but we don’t know, and if anything the available evidence suggests that Taiwan is more likely

So where is the Trump T1 phone made?  It’s hard to say, but the truth will come out sooner or later, and when it does, I have a feeling that when the people who invested in the phone find out that they were lied to about where the product was made and how good it’s supposed to be in comparison to Samsung, Apple and other name brands, they will be disappointed.  Maybe it’s fair to say that they once again, got conned by the conman in charge.  

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Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his own blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image is from the author

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