A year after supporters of President Donald Trump put down $100 deposits for a Trump-branded gold phone, not one has shipped. The $500 device, called the T1, is still missing a release date, and the company’s preorder terms now say it may never arrive.
T1 Mobile LLC quietly updated its preorder terms and conditions last month to say it “does not guarantee that a Device will be produced or made available for purchase.” The April 6 language also says a deposit gives buyers only a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later decides, in its “sole discretion,” to offer the phone for sale. That is a far cry from the pitch that first drew depositors in, and it lands after the company pushed the expected ship date from August 2025 to November, then December, then “mid to late January,” according to customer service representatives who also blamed a government shutdown for the delay.
The company still lists no release date on the Trump Mobile website. The phone has also been revised three times, according to the background provided by the company’s shifting rollout. Last month, The Verge reported that the device had received PTCRB certification and reportedly got authorization from the Federal Communications Commission, two steps that suggest the handset has moved further along technically even as customers are left waiting.
The T1 is described as a gold phone with an American flag and the Trump Mobile name on its shell. It is supposed to run Android and feature a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen, a 50-megapixel front and back camera, a fingerprint sensor and “AI face unlock.” The website originally advertised the device as being made in America, but now says it will be “designed with American values in mind.”
What makes the delay harder to square is that Trump Mobile is already selling other products. The company offers refurbished Samsung phones and iPhones that connect to its network, along with a so-called 47 Plan priced at $47.45 per month. For buyers who put down the $100 deposit, though, the phone they were promised has yet to appear, and the new terms leave open the possibility that it never will.
Carter Ryan, reacting to the updated terms, put the frustration more bluntly: “I’m paying $100 for the chance to maybe give you more money in the future, if you decide to make the product that I’m paying for in the first place?” That question now hangs over a phone that has been marketed, delayed and reworked, but not delivered.
