Rejoice! Trump Mobile’s ‘urine sample’ phone finally launched.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/27/800045676/tech/trump-mobile-phone-launches/
Rejoice! Trump Mobile’s ‘urine sample’ phone finally launched.
After months and months and months, the Trump Mobile T1 phone is finally out.
All it seemed to take was some exceedingly bad press—even by Trump family business standards—about how the company convinced 590,000 suckers to pay $100 in preorder deposits, and then tried to never give it back.
For some inexplicable reason, CNET is testing the phone as if it were an actual new phone release, rather than the Trump family rebadging a random older phone in order to extract money from the most gullible and diehard MAGA types.
To be fair, CNET’s testing coverage may be somewhat of a public service for those folks. It reported that Trump Mobile expedited shipping the phone, which was preordered way back in June 2025, so CNET could review it.
“It’s unclear whether people who placed a preorder and aren’t members of the media have received their phones yet, and Trump Mobile hasn’t responded to a request for comment on this,” CNET wrote.
Nothing screams “successful new phone launch” like refusing to comment on who, if anyone, has received your exciting new phone.
Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien did see fit to tell CNET that “the technology business is more difficult than some may realize, as parts must be tested for quality assurances.”
Just spitballing here, but most people do realize that phone parts must be tested for quality assurance. But quality checks apparently did not extend to ensuring that the American flag that’s slapped on the Trump Mobile foreign-made phone had the correct number of stripes.
Do you think any of the Trump family could say off the top of their heads how many stripes are on the flag and what they represent? Do you think any of the Trump family could offer any plausible explanation of why the flag on their jingoism phone has only 11 stripes?
Related | Suckers paid $59 million for nonexistent Trump phones
Perhaps a wee bit of quality assurance might also have helped Trump Mobile create a phone that reviewers wouldn’t have described as the color of a “urine sample.”
CNET’s testing also put on blast something originally reported, but hardly noticed, last week. A security flaw on the Trump Mobile website exposed the personal information of more than 27,000 people who placed preorders.
But, of course, the company spun it like it’s no big deal.
“At this time, the impacted information appears to be limited to certain customer details, including names, email addresses, mailing addresses, order identifiers and mobile phone numbers,” it said.
The hacker reported that they were able to place fake orders on the preorder site and scrape and search the database. Per Trump Mobile, the hacker didn’t get credit card information. But what they did get is likely far more embarrassing for the Trump family business: Proof of a possible 27,224 preorders—not 590,000.
And even that number might be high, because the system recorded everyone who went through the preorder process, even if they abandoned the cart. Indeed, it looks like Trump Mobile may only have about 10,000 unique customers.
Besides lying its face off about pre-sales, Trump Mobile is still lying its face off about the phone’s manufacturing.
First, it was going to be made in the United States. Then it was just designed “with American values in mind” and an “American-proud design.” All that pride doesn’t seem to have extended to providing any information about where the phone is made.
The T1 sent to CNET had no manufacturing information on the phone, box, manual, or packaging, but it boasts that it was “proudly assembled in the U.S.A.”
And at some vague future date, the company will begin using components “primarily manufactured” in the United States. What components? Who can say!
People who keep track of these things seem to think the T1 is a modified HTC U24 Pro, which was released in June 2024—and they also pointed out that it’s preinstalled with Android 15, a generation behind what new Android phones ship with. Not to mention, Android 17 is expected to drop yet this summer.
Lucky buyers also get a headphone jack, which is totally what the people crave and not just an artifact of pushing an old, mid-range phone. They also get Truth Social automatically preloaded, because it’s totally normal for the president to have his own private social media network that he then places on every phone purchased through his family’s private company.
What all of this makes clear is that there’s no world where Trump Mobile is a real, viable company that stands on its own.
Only 10,000 customers and one lone, crappy, outdated phone? Anyone who doesn’t have a daddy in the White House would have gone out of business months ago.
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