Trump Mobile Phone Delayed, Details Shift Amid Government Shutdown

In June, president Donald Trump’s two older sons held an event at Trump Tower where they touted a new made-in-the-USA mobile phone with an American flag on its back,plus a new wireless service called Trump Mobile.

The phone was announced on the 10th anniversary of Trump’s presidential campaign launch and was the trump brand’s first foray into mobile products and services. According to the initial declaration, the phone was supposed to be released in August.

But three months later,there are no signs that the phone has become a reality.

NBC News placed an order for a T1 phone in August, paying the $100 deposit for the purposes of tracking the $499 phone’s progress.

After confirming with the credit card company that the transaction was not fraudulent, NBC News received a confirmation email verifying the order.

But the company provided no proactive updates after the order. NBC News made five separate phone calls to the Trump Mobile customer support line between September and November. At one point in October, the call operator promised a specific ship date: Nov. 13.

That date passed without an update, and when NBC News followed up with the call center, an operator said the delivery would now be in the “beginning of December,” with no specific date.

The operator cited the government shutdown as a reason for the delay, without further description.

Trump Mobile launched the T1 phone in tandem with a number of phone service offerings, including a 5G service plan priced at $47.45 per month – a nod to the president’s terms.Along with unlimited talk, text and data, the plan promised “telehealth services, including virtual medical care.”

But since the original announcement, plans appear to be in flux. Quiet edits to the Trump Mobile website suggest that details around the phone’s design and production may have changed as it was announced.

The Trump Mobile website has scrubbed any mention of a specific release month, but continues to collect $100 down payments on the promise of availability “later this year.”