President Donald Trump’s family business has been licensed in a new mobile service in the U.S. and a $499 U.S. smartphone on Monday, calling it Trump Mobile, the latest deal for the president’s children as they served in the office to take advantage of his name.
The new mobile enterprise announced at Trump Tower in Manhattan will operate using the network of three major U.S. wireless carriers. There were no immediate disclosures on some key details about the joint venture, including the financial terms of the licensing agreement.
“We will introduce a package of products that people can come to, and they can get telemedicine on their phones, roadside assistance to cars, unlimited texting to 100 countries around the world at a flat monthly fee, roadside assistance to cars,” said Donald Trump, the president's eldest son.
The announcement also promotes the “smooth gold smartphone” that will be “designed and built in the United States.”
It is unclear which U.S. company can ship phones at that price, a feat that has evaded the world's largest phone maker, including Apple. Despite the strength of the US technology brands, there is still no important domestic smartphone production infrastructure, mainly due to high labor costs, the complexity of the supply chain, and the reliance on overseas component procurement.
Eric Trump showed on Monday’s podcast that it may not be possible to deliver the phone for the first time in the U.S. by August.
“Ultimately, all mobile phones can be built in the United States of America,” he said. Benny performs podcast. There is no news about any availability in Canada.
Donald Trump said he placed his business interests in trusts managed by children to avoid conflicts of interest, but the revenue of such business enterprises will eventually enrich the president, which sits above the Trump family’s series.
In Trump's financial disclosure published Friday, he reported more than $600 million in U.S. revenue from licensing transactions, crypto projects, golf clubs and other joint ventures. Those numbers appear to be until the end of 2024, until his second term as president. Since then, the Trump family’s crypto projects alone have brought hundreds of millions of dollars.
Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Harvard Law School, said: “No one who has been paying attention to it will miss President Trump's view as a tool to increase the wealth of his family. Perhaps this example will help more facts see this undeniable fact.”
The Trump Organization has had a series of business failures with licensing, including Trump vodka, Trump steak, Trump mattress, Trump ice and Trump University.
US Call Center
According to the Trump Organization's announcement, the family used the term used to describe the president's multiple commercial businesses. Wireless service provider AT&T currently operates call centers in the United States.
T1 Mobile uses the “Trump” name under a trademark license, similar to other Trump-branded businesses. According to Trump’s mobile website, the Trump Organization is not involved in designing smartphones, making them, providing or selling cellular services.
It is not clear who is operating T1 Mobile LLC, which was registered in Florida under the Palm Beach Garden address in April. Attorney Stuart Kaplan, the company's registered agent, handed the issue over to the company's news handlers. Representatives of the Trump Organization and T1's public relations contacts did not respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. mobile network market is dominated by operators in three countries: Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, which jointly control over more than 95% of the wireless market. However, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that purchase network capacity from major U.S. operators are becoming increasingly popular with targets targeting niche markets.
Actor Ryan Reynolds is both an investor in MINT Mobile and a low-cost MVNO targeting light-duty phone users, which was later acquired by T-Mobile for $1.35 billion.
One analyst said such businesses may be difficult to make money.
“MVNOS accounts for only three to five percent of the U.S. wireless subscription and churn,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Runnun Point Capital Advisors. “The financial impact is minimal unless Trump mobile cracks the million-dollar businessman mark (much higher than most celebrity MVNOs).
The new website announced that new Trump-branded smartphones will begin in September. The new network will be available at a subscription price of $47.45 per month, a reference to Trump, who was the 45th U.S. president of the last semester and now 47th.
“This latest move raises more questions than answers. The devil is in detail, given the actual business relationship with telecom players is not clear,” said Paolo Pescatore, TMT analyst at PP Foresight.
