When the Trump Organization unveiled its new Trump Mobile wireless service on Monday, it said its upcoming T1 smartphone will be “proudly designed and built in the United States.”
But experts told CNN they’re skeptical that a smartphone can be built in the US based on the specifications, price and timeline laid out by Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump, when they announced the phone.
Experts pointed out striking similarities between the T1’s specifications and an already available, Chinese-made phone.
“Unless the Trump family secretly built out a secure, onshore or nearshore (fabrication) operation over years of work without anyone noticing, it’s simply not possible to deliver what they’re promising,” said Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, one of the only known companies to actually manufacture a cell phone in the United States.
CNN has reached out to the Trump Organization for comment.
President Donald Trump is not involved in the daily operations of the Trump Organization, which is run by the president’s eldest sons, the company said in January. The announcement comes as the president has been pushing to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, particularly in the tech industry. He’s pressured companies like Apple and Samsung to manufacture their phones in the US, saying companies who make their phones elsewhere will face a tariff of at least 25%.
The Trump family say on Trump Mobile’s website and in the formal announcement in Trump Tower on Monday that the phone will be “Made in the USA.” But later, in a clip from an interview with conservative media personality Benny Johnson, Eric Trump said “eventually all the phones can be built in the United States of America.” CNN has asked the Trump Organization whether the T1 phone will initially be built in the US.
Both Weaver and a second expert, Max Weinbach, an analyst at market research firm Creative Strategies, independently told CNN they believe the T1 phone looks like a version of the already available Revvl 7 Pro 5G, made by China-based Wingtech, which provides manufacturing services for smartphones and other products. The phone retails for around $169 on Amazon.
Weinbach and Weaver base this off the specifications listed by Trump Mobile, including the phone’s body, battery and camera resolution. There’s no direct evidence linking Trump’s phone directly to the Revvl 7 Pro 5G or any specific phone made outside the US. CNN has reached out to Wingtech for comment.
“There (are) only realistically four or five smartphone ODM (original device manufacturers) that would actually be able to manufacture something like this,” Weinbach said. “All of them are based out of China.”
The Revvl device has the same screen size, battery capacity and storage as the T1 phone according to the information listed on the Trump Mobile website , and both phones have a headphone jack – a rare find on modern smartphones. The Revvl’s camera is slightly different, and the T1 phone has more memory.
Another device labeled the Vtex Smart Phone listed on Made-in-China, a website for connecting buyers with Chinese suppliers, has specifications that are nearly identical to the T1’s – including the same battery capacity, camera arrangement and supported software version, although it’s unclear if the device has a headphone jack, and there are some differences in the memory and display. CNN has reached out to Shenzen Vitek Electronics Co., the company behind the Vtex Smart Phone, for comment.
Weinbach says it’s common for companies to customize devices made by ODMs before selling them under their own brand.
“A lot of them share the same components, parts, boards and antenna hardware,” he said. “So, you can swap out a couple of things.”
In a press release, the Trump Organization said Trump Mobile’s products are not “designed, developed, manufactured, distributed or sold by The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals.”
Building a phone in the US would be challenging, if not impossible, for a September 2025 launch in part because the US doesn’t currently have the necessary fabrication plants, said Ryan Reith, group vice president for the International Data Corporation’s Worldwide Device Tracker. And many of the components would likely still come from overseas.
“Any phone (that) is going to be sold in September, or shipped in September into the US, the majority of it’s not going to be manufactured in the US,” said Reith. “That’s a given.”
For example, Trump has pushed for months for Apple to build its signature product, the iPhone, in the United States. But that would mean a massive supply chain shift away from China and India. Nor would it mean just a change in factory resources – those countries also have highly specialized work forces that the US lacks. The result could mean price hikes or design changes for the iPhone, some analysts estimate.
Weaver told CNN that sometime within the last year intermediaries working with the Trump Organization had been looking at Purism’s phone and speaking to the company about what it takes to make a phone in the United States.
Purism makes the $1,999 Liberty Phone, which touts itself as a secure “Made in America” phone, although even they are forced to source some parts from abroad.
“There are certain areas where you’re going to still need to have a global supply chain. One example is a crystal that goes in our GNSS chip or GPS chip. That single crystal is only manufactured in China,” Weaver said.
Weaver pointed out the Federal Trade Commission has “strict guidelines” on claiming an item is “Made in the USA.”
“I do believe there will be a massive amount of back pedaling that goes on,” Weaver said. “Just to manufacture a phone in the US with the chip sets you’re actually getting, purchase and support with the US supply chain is a massive undertaking, and that’s also the reason why we happen to be the only ones doing it.”
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