President Donald Trump’s family business is taking preorders for a gold-colored smartphone, the T1.
Trump Mobile, which launched Tuesday, says the device will be available in September, cost far less than Apple’s and Samsung’s smartphones — and be made in the United States, aligning with the president’s “America First” economic ethos.
Industry experts and tech journalists instantly cast doubt on those claims. And if Carlsbad, California-based smartphone maker Purism is any example, it would take much more than two months for Trump Mobile to build an American-made smartphone from scratch. It would also likely be more expensive than the T1’s advertised price of $499.
At $2,000, Purism’s Liberty Phone is more expensive than an iPhone 16 Pro. It has half the iPhone’s memory with roughly twice the thickness. You also can’t download many apps on it. According to Todd Weaver, who founded Purism in 2014, it’s the only U.S.-made smartphone on the market.
But with “kill switches” to turn off its wi-fi, camera and microphone, the Liberty Phone is marketed as a secure option because it also carries its own operating system designed by Purism.
It took a lot of time and effort to get to that point, Weaver told NBC News. Going from “I would like to make a phone, and I would like to make it in the U.S.” to actually achieving it took six years, he said.
Purism’s assembly line consists of just four people screwing together phones by hand — a far cry from the shoulder-to-shoulder line of people and automated machinery often associated with mass production facilities in China.
The “Made in the USA electronics” sticker that Purism slaps on the product is a declaration of confidence — since the Federal Trade Commission regulates claims of that sort.
Yet even Purism’s built-in-America phone needs some foreign help. Ninety percent of the phone’s materials come from the United States, Canada or Europe. Among the components made elsewhere: a chassis from China, camera modules from China or South Korea, and a bluetooth module from India. Purism publishes this information online.
For materials like a specific crystal necessary for the motherboard to operate, Purism says there are no options for U.S. sourcing, meaning there’s no choice but to buy from China.
“There just isn’t a company yet providing that single crystal,” said Weaver.
The Trump Organization didn’t respond to NBC News’ questions about how Trump Mobile’s T1 phone would be made.
Another issue looming over the market: Trump’s ever-shifting trade policies. The president recently threatened a 25% tariff on all smartphone imports, taking aim at manufacturers like Apple and Samsung that make their phones abroad.
“Again, when they build their plant here, there’s no tariff, so they’re going to be building plants here,” the president said last month.
The percentage of the materials for Purism’s phone that come from overseas is small enough that tariffs from the Trump administration would not affect its $2,000 price. But the tariffs would affect a phone Purism does make in China, called the Librem 5. It’s currently priced at $800 but new import duties would take it closer to the Liberty phone’s $2,000 level.
While tariffs are a “good incentive” for manufacturing in the U.S., Weaver said, the on-again-off-again approach from the administration makes it tough to plan.
“It’s terrible,” Weaver said. “If you have no idea, and you can’t predict [the policy], it’s very hard for any company, for any business owner. From t-shirts, textiles, to high tech, it is very hard to make a long term business decision when you’re in a whipsaw.”
