from the fake-plastic-trees dept
Last week we noted how the Trump administration had cooked up a half-assed wireless phone company. Even calling it a phone company is generous: It’s basically a licensing agreement and a lazy coat of paint on another, half-assed MVNO effort (Patriot Mobile), which in turn just resells T-Mobile service.
A cornerstone of the supposed company was a new $500 Trump T1 phone. To pitch the phone, the press release had a badly photoshopped rendition of what the so-far-nonexistent phone would look like (curiously missing a camera flash), peppered with claims the phone would be “proudly designed and built in the United States.”
As we noted at the time, it would likely be just weeks before people realized the “made in America” claims weren’t true. And it sounds like we didn’t even have to wait that long. The Verge noticed that all of the “made in America” claims have been stripped from the Trump website, replaced with far-more vague language about how the phone is ambiguously infused with American sentiment:
“The T1’s new tagline is “Premium Performance. Proudly American.” Its website says the device is “designed with American values in mind” and there are “American hands behind every device.” Under Key Features, the first thing listed is “American-Proud Design.” None of this indicates, well, anything. It certainly doesn’t say the device is made in the USA, or even designed in the USA. There are just… some hands. In America.”
Trump Mobile folks are still trying to claim the phone will be made in America. At least until press reports in another month or two indicating that’s clearly not true. Again. The Verge notes that the screen size has gotten smaller in the website description, and they eliminated listing RAM specifications for some reason.
Trump operates at a fourth-grade reading level and genuinely believes his ignorant tariff plan will somehow magically force all manufacturing back to the United States. But as countless journalists and analysts have dissected, it would be literally impossible to manufacture an affordable phone in the United States without resorting to slave labor and ignoring all labor and environmental law.
Which is to say the weird Trump zealots might actually believe (or have been told) this is a real thing that they’re capable of, but it’s simply never happening. Still, the Trump boys have been pouring it on thick, with Eric Trump going on TV to claim that not only will the Trump phone be made in the USA, but all company support would be USA based as well:
“You’re not calling up call centers in Bangladesh − do it right out of St. Louis, Missouri, and you’re going to have phones that are made right here in the United States of America,” [Eric said]. He added Trump Mobile is “going to revolutionize cell phones, mobile calling” as it will fully operate in the U.S.
“I really believe we’re gonna have one of the great kind of tech platforms as part of the Trump Organization of any company in the world,” he added.
This is really all just lazy performance art for very dim people.
In many ways a lazily branded mobile phone MVNO hyping a so-far-nonexistent phone pretending to be American made is a perfect encapsulation of the “Trump experience.” Just complete pointless artifice from start to finish, with a singular function: hollow grift in the golden age of corruption.
Filed Under: broadband, bullshit, china, donald trump, eric trump, made in america, t1, tariffs, telecom, trade war, wireless
Companies: trump mobile
