When the Trump Organization unveiled their T1 smartphone, it was marketed as more than just another Android phone. It was presented as a symbol of American manufacturing—a phone supposedly built in the United States at a time when politicians across the spectrum have been calling for more domestic production. Buy this phone, consumers were told, and they would be supporting American workers rather than overseas factories. Of course those that were familiar with phone manufacturing questioned how this was even possible. Most reporters and analysts said it was not possible, while Trump spokesman doubled down and belittled the criticism.
Now we have more facts and learned what should have always been obvious: it’s just another grift where the truth never gets in the way of bilking his followers out of more money.
An investigation recently conducted by NBC News and the iFixit website that tears down products now have proof that the Trump Mobile T1 phone is not American-made. After examining the device through CT scans and a complete teardown, they concluded that the phone is nearly identical to the HTC U24 Pro, a smartphone introduced in 2024 and made in China. The similarities extended far beyond appearance. The internal components, circuit board layouts, screw placements, and major hardware elements are virtually the same. iFixit even inserted the HTC motherboard into the Trump phone’s case and produced a fully functioning device.
The T1 is simply a rebranded version of an existing 2-yr old smartphone rather than a newly designed American product. According to iFixit’s analysis, the phone uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 processor and shares most of its architecture with the HTC device. They did find that the battery is from a Philippine manufacturer rather than the Chinese battery found in the HTC version.
None of this should surprise anyone familiar with smartphone manufacturing. Building a modern smartphone in volume in the United States has not been possible for Apple or any other company. The supply chains for displays, batteries, camera modules, processors, memory chips, and countless other components are all located in China and Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia. Creating a U.S. smartphone industry would require years of investment and the construction of an extensive manufacturing ecosystem.
The T1 may be gold-colored., but according to the evidence uncovered by NBC News and iFixit, it is not the all-American smartphone many customers believed they were buying.