TL;DR
- A Trump Mobile executive teased a higher-end “T1 Ultra” in a November interview.
- That’s despite no one who ordered the original Trump phone having received it yet.
- The executive claims that customers are “eager to buy into” the successor.
My colleague C. Scott Brown put down his $100 deposit for the Trump phone seven months ago, and it still hasn’t turned up. At least he ordered it for professional reasons (I think), but no one who excitedly pre-ordered the T1 phone has seen any sign of it yet. That hasn’t stopped Trump Mobile from thinking about what comes next. According to a company executive, a higher-end “T1 Ultra” may also be in the works.
The Verge spotted a largely overlooked interview from November with Trump Mobile executive Don Hendrickson. Speaking to Wireless Dealer Magazine at the time, Hendrickson teased a second phone before the first one had made it into customers’ hands.
“Our next major step is the launch of the T1 Ultra,” Hendrickson said, describing it as a premium device that builds on the “success” of the original T1. That word is doing some very heavy lifting, given that the original T1 hasn’t been seen outside of marketing imagery. It still doesn’t even have a clear release date, so its only success until now has been to separate a lot of people from their $100 deposit on vibes alone.
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Hendrickson also suggested customers are already eager for the T1 Ultra — a point that The Verge rightly picked up on. Given that the phone hadn’t even been publicly mentioned until the interview was published, and the original Trump phone was (and still is) missing in action, it’s hard to know when or why customers would have expressed excitement for a successor.
Samsung is one of several OEMs that use the name “Ultra” for their highest-tier device, and it would make sense for Trump Mobile to adopt such a successful branding strategy. In earlier ads, the company has already depicted the T1 Phone as everything from a gold-plated iPhone to what appeared to be a Galaxy S25 Ultra, so maybe that’s where the idea came from.
None of this means a T1 Ultra won’t ever exist. But with the original T1 now the subject of an FTC investigation request from Democratic lawmakers, talk of a higher-end follow-up may be a little premature, to say the least. The Verge requested a comment from Trump Mobile, but they’re still waiting for that, too.
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