(Fixes typo)
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Trump Organization launched a self-branded mobile service and a $499 smartphone on Monday, dubbed Trump Mobile, signaling a new effort to court conservative consumers with a wireless service positioned as an alternative to major telecom providers.
The new mobile venture, announced at Trump Tower in Manhattan, will include call centers based in the United States and phones made in America, the organization said.
“We are going to be introducing an entire package of products where people can come and they can get telemedicine on their phones for one flat monthly fee, roadside assistance on their cars, unlimited texting to 100 countries around the world,” said the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., announcing the product at Trump Tower in New York.
The Trump family, long known for its real estate empire, luxury hotels, and golf resorts, has in recent years ventured into newer arenas including digital media and cryptocurrency.
This move would follow similar trends in right-leaning media and commerce, where ideologically aligned platforms — from news outlets to social networks — have emerged to cater to conservative audiences.
The Trump Organization, which is the main holding entity for most of the U.S. president’s business ventures, said ahead of Trump’s inauguration that control of the company would be handed to his children, replicating the arrangement from his first term, though concerns about potential conflicts of interest remain.
T1 Mobile uses the “Trump” name under a trademark license, similar to other Trump-branded ventures where the brand is licensed to third parties. As a result, the Trump Organization is not involved in designing the smartphone, manufacturing it, or providing the cellular service.
A website that went live after the announcement included details of the new Trump-branded smartphone that will be available from September, and a $47.45 a month subscription plan to the new network.
The new network will be available for a subscription price of $47.45 per month, a reference to Trump, who was the 45th President in his previous term in office and is now serving as the 47th President.
“This latest move raises more questions than answers. As always the devil is in the detail given that it is unclear around the actual commercial relationship with the telecom players and so forth,” said Paolo Pescatore, TMT analyst at PP Foresight.
DTTM Operations — the entity managing President Trump’s trademarks — has filed applications to use his name and the term “T1” for telecom-related services.
The filings, submitted Thursday to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, cover mobile phones, accessories like cases and chargers, wireless telephone services, and possibly even retail stores.
The smartphone industry in the United States is among the most saturated and competitive in the world, with leading global players Apple and Samsung dominating the market.
More than 60 million smartphones are purchased annually by American consumers, but nearly all of these devices are manufactured abroad — primarily in China, South Korea, and increasingly in India and Vietnam.
Despite the strength of U.S.-based tech brands, there is no significant domestic smartphone production infrastructure, largely due to high labor costs, supply chain complexity, and reliance on overseas component sourcing.
The U.S. mobile network market is dominated by three national carriers: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, which together control over 95% of the wireless market. These companies operate massive, capital-intensive infrastructures and offer bundled services to tens of millions of subscribers.
(Reporting by Hannah Lang and Michelle Conlin in New York and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Writing by Elizabeth Howcroft; additional reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Nick Zieminski)
