The Trump T1 smartphone saga has dragged on for almost a full year since its announcement last summer, and at every step of that process, it’s felt like a fake product that will never come out… until now.
In its endless quest to document this elusive smartphone, The Verge found a series of FCC listings for a phone called “T1” that suggest the product was tested and granted certification by the federal agency over the past few months. As is common with FCC listings, the documents are largely redacted and contain no photos or other useful information about the phone itself. They also don’t reference Trump or any of the other corporate entities previously attached to the phone, such as “Trump Mobile,” instead referring to a new company called Smart Gadgets Global. That company’s CEO is Eric Thomas, who is an established executive at Trump Mobile.
So, while all of this is weird and vaguely suspicious, we can confirm that the FCC has certified a phone called the T1, which was submitted by a Trump Mobile executive. All of this will be a lot more believable if/when the phone is actually in people’s hands, but for now, we have to at least act like the T1 is real.
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The T1 was announced last June as a $500 “made in America” Android device with a golden exterior, somewhat respectable specs, and a target audience of true patriots. It didn’t take long for people to realize that some major components couldn’t have been made in America, and the phone missed its original September release date. It was delayed again in December, somewhat shockingly, before re-emerging in February with new specs and an altered appearance. That $500 price was also revealed at that time to be for early adopters only, with later customers being subject to an undetermined higher price point.
To be clear, there is still every possibility that the T1 is not real and will never come out. But it looks more real today than it did a week ago.
