Back in June 2025, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump announced Trump Mobile with big promises: a smartphone built in America. A year later, the phones are finally trickling out to customers, but a new teardown suggests they're about as American as a fortune cookie.
The Trump Organization quietly walked back its 'Made in America' claims, swapping them for vaguer phrases like 'Designed with American Values,' 'Proudly American,' and 'American Proud Design.' But a teardown by iFixit and NBC reveals the T1 phone is nearly identical to the HTC U24 Pro, a smartphone made in China for the Taiwanese company.
According to iFixit, 'The only place the T1 could have been made in the very short time the brand has existed, in the limited quantities being produced, and at the same price point as the U24 Pro, is at factories with preexisting tooling and production lines for this phone.' The breakdown goes further, alleging the phone was likely 'designed in China, made in China, with the vast majority of parts sourced from China.'
MarketDash reached out to the Trump Organization and the White House for comment but did not hear back.
The teardown did find one difference: the Trump phone's battery is made in the Philippines, while most other components come from China. Another difference is the chipset: the T1 uses a package from Micron Technology (MU), while the HTC uses one from SK Hynix. The T1 also runs on a Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm (QCOM) and uses the Android platform.
HTC previously told The Verge that it 'does not design or manufacture phones for third parties.' The Verge speculated that HTC might contract a third-party company to make the U24 Pro, and Trump Mobile used the same third-party company to make the T1—both likely in China.
Trump Mobile has been plagued by delays and shifting slogans. The change from 'Made in America' to 'shaped by American innovation' went viral, raising questions about where the phone was actually made. Democrats have also attacked the company over potential conflicts of interest, given that the president's sons run it.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told MarketDash: 'The media's continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public's distrust in what they read. Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.'
Despite the delays and controversy, Trump Mobile has started shipping the T1 to pre-order customers. Whether buyers will care about the phone's true origins remains to be seen.
