Trump’s New Side Hustle

It appears Donald Trump is bored of his day job. The President of the United States of America has been busy sending Immigration Customs Enforcement and the National Guard out to Los Angeles, writing his “big, beautiful bill” and squabbling with Elon Musk over the proposed bill. 

But that’s old news. His latest venture could be returning to his first act as an entrepreneur. Trump Mobile, the latest cell phone and accompanying text and call service is coming to a mobile retailer near you. Spearheaded by Donald Trump Jr, Trump Mobile, will run consumers $47.45, “an apparent reference to Trump’s résumé as the nation’s 45th and 47th president,” Max Zahn at ABC News reports. While the services provided are pretty standard, some of the offerings that could drive competition are the reported telehealth features built into the phone and service as well as free international calls to over 100 countries. The call and text service will be backed by the big three U.S. carriers – A.T.&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon

The company also sells a smartphone, which it calls, “The T1 Phone. “The gold-colored phone features a built-in camera and 256 gigabyte storage. An American flag and “T1” are inscribed on the back of the phone. The Trump Mobile smartphone will cost $499, including a $100 down payment. The smartphone will be released in August, Trump Mobile executives, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. revealed on Monday.

This appears to be the Trump Foundation’s response to the rise of outsourced tech labor in the last 40 to 50 years, with China making the most of our modern day, everyday tech at our hands. America being able to produce its own technology is certainly a turn for the best and this is likely one of very few decent to good decisions that the Trump clan will make in their last years of political power. However, whether or not this phone is actually made in America is drawing debate from tech experts. 

Nilay Patel, co-founder of technology news website The Verge, told CNBC: “I don’t think they’re going to sell a phone that has anything to do with the United States on any kind of timeline that makes sense.” He added that the only phone which could be sold for $499 by September would be a “skinned Chinese Android phone.”

Tinglong Dai, professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, agrees with that sentiment. “Barring miracles, building a smartphone entirely in the U.S. by September is all but impossible,” Dai told Newsweek.

Eric Trump himself stated in an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network, that the plans to produce a phone that is actually made in America will hopefully manifest “in the next six months” which would be December, nearly 4 months after the launch of the alleged “American First” phone.  So will your America First phone actually be made in America? The answer is maybe. Eventually. Possibly. 

But should Trump’s family be the ones to lead this type of undertaking?  With rumors out about Elon Musk helping to buy the election, the Donald J. Trump Foundation being shut down in 2019 due to embezzlement fraud and a slew of other sketchy business and political deals, Trump’s legacy as a grifter isn’t exactly cause for optimism in getting involved in an essential service.  The only presidents in history who have actively operated businesses while in office have been founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Trump is already a billionaire without his first or second presidential terms playing a factor in his net worth, so why the need to divide attention between overseeing his sons’ business ventures and actually running the nation? These are questions I have no answers to.

 I think it is credible for Americans to be skeptical of whether Trump Mobile should be allowed to exist under the Trump Organization while the owner of the organization is a sitting president. I also think it is noble to bring back American manufacturing. Expectations that one president is going to completely upend decades of erroneous outsourcing protocol is a bit delusional, no matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or otherwise.

Like much of Trump’s presidency, so much of the issue is not in the ideals per se (although many of his ideals are racist and abhorrent to be clear), but rather the manner in which his ideals are carried out. Initiating the return to American production for goods? Wonderful. Launching a “mobile service” and Trump phone, which many tech experts are convinced is a Chinese designed android being rebranded as “American” and slapped with gold, Trump’s signature business color, as the sitting President of the United States? Questionable. 

Why not work to bring American manufacturing back without doing it under your private company firm? Could he have struck a deal with Elon or other billionaires with American production interests to ensure we get the ball rolling on American production? That would make the most sense to me. But Trump doesn’t make sense, nor does he really care to. 

Either way, if you’d like to be the Trump Mobile guinea pig,  phones go online for purchase starting in late August of this year.