The Trump phone may finally be here: Trump Mobile’s CEO told USA Today that the phone will begin shipping to buyers this week. The announcement comes as reports have gone viral this week alleging that preorders for the phone have been canceled.
Trump Mobile CEO Pat O’Brien confirmed the release plans to USA Today over email, telling the outlet that all preorders will be fulfilled within the next few weeks.
O’Brien reportedly acknowledged the phone’s numerous delays — it’s now been 11 months since it was announced — though seemingly didn’t offer any detailed explanation for why the phone has taken so long to launch. “Those delays were worth it in our minds as we are delivering an amazing product,” he said.
Alongside the release news, Trump Mobile provided USA Today with the first promotional video for the phone. It shows the redesigned handset, which appeared on the company’s website last month, along with its packaging. It appears the phone will ship with a clear plastic case, a power brick, and a gold braided USB-C cable.
The confirmation to USA Today is a rare public announcement from a company that has mostly ignored the media, including us — I haven’t had a reply to any of my emails to Trump Mobile since its executives showed me the revised phone in February. Nevertheless, I’ve reached out to ask for confirmation of the imminent release.
O’Brien may have broken radio silence in response to a recent wave of media coverage alleging that buyers had received emails notifying them that their preorders had been canceled, coverage that even made it onto Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. I’d been meaning to address those reports in my weekly Trump Mobile dispatch on Friday, as there’s seemingly no evidence of the alleged cancellation emails beyond unverified social media claims. The grain of truth is that Trump Mobile did update its website with preorder terms of service that didn’t guarantee it would ever ship a phone, which I reported on last month, speculating at the time that they were most likely “boilerplate legal caution.”
Much of the recent viral reporting has also repeated the claim that 600,000 people have preordered the Trump phone, a claim I debunked months ago. For his part, O’Brien wouldn’t confirm to USA Today how many phones have been preordered, but said the company is “incredibly pleased with the interest in both the Trump Mobile service and the T1 phones.”
The Verge has its own T1 Phones preordered, and we’ll be eagerly awaiting their arrival.
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