The website failed, went to an error page, and then charged my credit card the wrong amount of $64.70. I received a confirmation email saying I’ll receive a confirmation when my order has been shipped, but I haven’t provided a shipping address or paid the full $499 price tag. It is the worst experience I’ve ever faced buying a consumer electronic product and I have no idea whether or how I’ll receive the phone.
I look forward to learning more about how terrible these phones turn out.
Is this one of the ways that Palantir plans to do mass surveillance? I would not be surprised.
Can’t say I feel bad for you buddy. Count yourself lucky if your cc info isn’t abused.
You are literally dealing with known felons.
well i’m definitely shocked that the guy banned from operating a charity in new york because he scammed children with cancer would operate a shoddy business.
With a track record like that, he’s the first person I would trust. /s
Usually he’s not even involved in running the business, they’re licensing deals where some scammer pays a few million up front to use the Trump name, which is then used to scam his followers.
extremely non-zero chance the entire site and payment system was coded by morons with chatgpt
We’re so gilded ugh
There is hidden significance and symbolism throughout the device for those dedicated trumpies to uncover. For example, one easter egg is that the length of the screen is exactly 4x the length of trump’s dick.
And they prolly didn’t measure it diagonally either. Only straight. As God intended or something.
Clearly the wrong price; should be going for $86.47.
For those OOTL (like I was):
https://time.com/7285796/james-comey-86-47-trump-threat-investigation-instagram-post-fbi/
That’s an impressive amount of optimism you have there. My guess is, you can kiss that money goodbye, but I hope everything somehow works out anyway.
Of course the phone is gold. Does it come with a stylus shaped like a golf club and diaper as well? Or are those extra?
Edit: Looked the specs. It has a headphone jack and expandable memory. How can Trump get that right and most phone manufacturers can’t?
Because it’s almost certainly an old, low spec device that they’ve bought a job lot of on clearance.
These are gonna be worse than the DethKlok phone, and that thing has spikes that stab your face when you use it.
Dunkin Hills approved
It also could be used as a weapon.
Fucking solid reference
The post link was a failure, too, being locked behind a paywall and it blocks reader mode. Fuck this entire article.
www.404media.co I Tried Pre-Ordering the Trump Phone. The Page Failed and It Charged My Credit Card the Wrong Amount Joseph Cox 4 - 5 minutes
On Monday the Trump Organization announced its own mobile service plan and the “T1 Phone,” a customized all-gold mobile phone that its creators say will be made in America.
I tried to pre-order the phone and pay the $100 downpayment, hoping to test the phone to see what apps come pre-installed, how secure it really is, and what components it includes when it comes out. The website failed, went to an error page, and then charged my credit card the wrong amount of $64.70. I received a confirmation email saying I’ll receive a confirmation when my order has been shipped, but I haven’t provided a shipping address or paid the full $499 price tag. It is the worst experience I’ve ever faced buying a consumer electronic product and I have no idea whether or how I’ll receive the phone.
“Trump Mobile is going to change the game, we’re building on the movement to put America first, and we will deliver the highest levels of quality and service. Our company is based right here in the United States because we know it’s what our customers want and deserve,” Donald Trump Jr., EVP of the Trump Organization, and obviously one of President Trump’s sons, said in a press release announcing Trump Mobile.
The announcement describes the T1 Phone as a “sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier.”
💡
Do you know anything else about this phone? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.
On the Benny Show podcast Trump Jr. said the phone is for people who want a phone made in America that without the potential of a “backdoor made into the hardware that some of our adversaries may have installed in there.” Trump Jr. also said call centers for Trump Mobile will be in St. Louis, “so we’re keeping our data on shore.”
Various phone companies and projects have pushed the “made in America” aspect of their phones. One is the Liberty Phone from Purism. Building a device in America or ensuring the integrity of a phone’s supply chain can be exceptionally difficult for a smaller company, because many components may be made in China or other countries even if the device itself is assembled in the U.S. And ultimately, a company with no telecom or hardware experience selling a device like the T1 Phone is probably not going to have the expertise to build a more secure device than, say, Apple or Google with its own Pixel devices, which have massive teams updating the hardware and operating system and constantly hunting for threats against their devices and users.
The mobile carrier part of Trump Mobile appears to be a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which is essentially a carrier that piggybacks off the technical infrastructure of the country’s other fully-fledged carriers like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. The Trump Organization’s announcement says that “Trump Mobile will offer 5G service through all three major cellular carriers.”
The Trump family and organization continue to make lucrative deals based on the Trump name while President Trump is in power. Bloomberg found that since Trump’s reelection campaign, the name has powered more than $10 billion of real estate projects, $500 million in sales from one of his crypto ventures, and millions from stakes in other companies.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After maybe pre-ordering my T1 Phone, the confirmation email said I could log into TrumpMobile.com to make changes to my account. I did that, changed my password as prompted, and then hit another error page. I have not been able to log into the site.
About the author
Joseph is an award-winning investigative journalist focused on generating impact. His work has triggered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fines, shut down tech companies, and much more.
Joseph Cox
The US is a failed state. There’s no other way to put it.
Failing, not failed. Don’t give up! Things could get a lot worse, we’re nowhere near the bottom. They could also get better.
It’s not for lack of a better term. It’s just accurate.
Imagine if earlier fascists were as corrupt with conflicts of interests. Maybe we could call via the Adolfone.
The MussoliniPad, doesn’t get WiFi at gas stations
Weird. Mussolini’s greatest achievement was at a gas station.
The Francoin is doing poorly in the crypto markets.
This is what a software developer would call a con-action error.
Never ceases to embarrass this nation
