The Trump phone starts shipping this week, CEO claims – The Verge

The Trump phone may finally be here: Trump Mobile claims 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 first confirmed the release plans to USA Today, telling the outlet that all preorders will be fulfilled within the next few weeks. The company later confirmed the news on its social media accounts, using a very normal number of exclamation marks in the process.

The T1 Phone has arrived!! Those who pre-ordered the T1 Phone will be receiving an update email. Phones start shipping this week!!!

In a press release the company added that demand for the phone had been “incredibly high,” and that “orders are being fulfilled as quickly as possible.” That means that for early buyers, the long wait may nearly be over: it’s now been 11 months since the T1 Phone was announced.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with the interest in Trump Mobile,” O’Brien said in the release. “From the outset, we’ve been committed to providing a product with the best parts and manufacturing for our customers, and we know the wait has been worth it as we are delivering an amazing product.”

While the company may have stopped claiming that the T1 is made in America, O’Brien says that “these early T1 phones are proudly assembled in the US” That refers to the company’s previous claim that “final assembly” takes place in Miami. There are supposedly more ambitious plans for the future, with the aim to “become the first to release a phone with the majority of parts being built here in America,” though it remains unclear which components might plausibly be manufactured in the US.

Alongside the release news, Trump Mobile released 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.

While the imminent release comes as a slight surprise, it’s not a total one. The phone has recently been certified by both the FCC and PTCRB, and The Verge can also reveal that last week it was added to Google’s public list of devices certified for Google Play, usually one of the final steps before an Android phone is launched.

This is a rare public announcement from a company that has mostly ignored the media, including us — I hadn’t had a reply to any of my emails to Trump Mobile since its executives showed me the revised phone in February. Today the company was ready to talk to me again, and spokesperson Chris Walker confirmed the news that the phone is about to ship.

Trump Mobile may have broken radio silence partly 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 it was 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, but we haven’t yet received any email confirmation that our phones will be delivered this week. We’ll be eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Update, May 13th: Trump Mobile has now confirmed the release timing on its social media pages and in a press release.

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