US President Donald Trump makes use of a cellphone aboard Marine One earlier than it departs Leesburg Govt Airport in Leesburg, Virginia, on April 24, 2025. Trump is returning to the White Home after attending a MAGA, Inc. dinner on the Trump Nationwide Golf Membership Washington, DC.
Alex Wroblewski | AFP | Getty Photographs
The Trump Group’s newly introduced smartphone will seemingly be made in China, consultants say, regardless of claims that the machine shall be manufactured within the U.S.
Owned by U.S. President Donald Trump, the corporate on Monday introduced the T1, a gold-colored machine which it stated would retail for $499. The smartphone will run Google‘s Android working system.
The Trump Group says the telephone shall be “in-built the US” — however consultants be aware the telephone was seemingly designed and could be manufactured by a Chinese language agency.
“There isn’t any approach the telephone was designed from scratch and there’s no approach it’s going to be assembled within the U.S. or utterly manufactured within the U.S.,” Francisco Jeronimo, vice chairman at Worldwide Information Corp., informed CNBC on Tuesday. “That’s utterly not possible.”
Jeronimo prompt that the telephone would seemingly be produced by a Chinese language unique machine producer, or ODM — a kind of firm that designs and producers merchandise primarily based on the specs of one other agency.
“Regardless of being marketed as an American-made telephone, it’s seemingly that this machine shall be initially produced by a Chinese language ODM,” Blake Przesmicki, an analyst at Counterpoint Analysis, stated in a be aware Monday.
Jeff Fieldhack, analysis director at Counterpoint Analysis, added that “the U.S. doesn’t have native manufacturing capabilities available.”
Smartphone manufacturing got here into focus after Trump threatened tariffs on units imported into the U.S. Whereas these have but to materialize, the American president has poured scrutiny on Apple‘s provide chain, urging the iPhone maker to fabricate its flagship handset within the U.S. The decision is a part of a broader want from Trump to see extra manufacturing of electronics be undertaken within the U.S.
A number of consultants have famous that manufacturing iPhones within the U.S. could be practically not possible and will surely increase the value of the product considerably. On prime of that, getting large-scale manufacturing off the bottom within the U.S. would take a number of years.
Cellphone will want overseas parts
Even when some manufacturing of the machine have been finished within the U.S., smartphone provide chains are international, and handset parts come from a number of nations.
The Trump Group’s T1 is not any completely different. Whereas no data has been revealed on specific parts, the specs might give a touch of what to anticipate.
The machine may have a 6.8-inch AMOLED show, a type of display that’s made primarily by South Korean agency Samsung. LG, one other South Korean agency, additionally produces the display, as does Chinese language agency BOE.
For comparability, Apple’s top-end iPhone 16 Professional Max, has a 6.9-inch show and begins at $1,199.
At T1’s $499 value level, the smartphone will seemingly use a processor from Taiwanese agency MediaTek, which might be manufactured in Taiwan. If the machine have been to comprise a Qualcomm chip as an alternative, that will additionally seemingly must be made in Taiwan.
The telephone’s marketed 50-megapixel digital camera will in the meantime require picture sensing chips — a market that’s dominated by Japanese agency Sony for smartphones. There are smaller gamers in China and elsewhere.
The machine’s reminiscence is one space that would use American expertise, probably from Micron, which manufactures its parts within the U.S. However different gamers, like Samsung, might be potential suppliers.
“Even when there may be native manufacturing accessible the corporate must depend on parts which might be being imported from outdoors the U.S.,” Counterpoint Analysis’s Fieldhack stated.
