US President Donald Trump has heavily promoted a gold-colored, Trump-branded “T1 Phone” aimed at his supporters, yet months after pre-orders opened, there is still no sign of the device. Despite accepting $100 deposits, Trump Mobile has so far failed to deliver the handset — and the phone has now missed yet another expected launch window.
When the T1 Phone was first announced in June 2025, it was promised to ship in August or September of that year. Those dates passed without any deliveries, after which the company quietly revised the launch timeframe on its website to the vague promise of “later this year.”
That wording initially suggested a release before the end of 2025. However, with 2026 already underway and no official updates, the phone remains conspicuously absent. Even today, the Trump Mobile website continues to advertise the T1 Phone as coming “later this year,” without clarifying which year is being referenced. As a result, it’s unclear how close — if at all — the device is to actually launching.
Still missing
Technically, the “later this year” claim could still hold true if it now refers to some point in 2026. However, the fact remains that Trump Mobile originally committed to a 2025 release, a deadline that has now been missed.
According to the Financial Times, Trump Mobile’s customer service team attributed the delay to the recent US government shutdown. Writing in December 2025, the outlet reported being told there was a “strong possibility” the phone would not ship before the end of the year — a prediction that ultimately proved accurate.
This is far from the first controversy surrounding Trump Mobile. The company has reportedly walked back its earlier pledge to manufacture the T1 Phone in the United States, while its mobile network offering has drawn criticism for technical issues and restrictive limitations experienced by early users.
Industry analysts also remain skeptical. Speaking to PBS, International Data Corp. analyst Francisco Jeronimo expressed doubts about the project’s viability. “We have always been quite skeptical about this phone,” he said. “They are probably finding that it is harder to build a phone than they thought it would be. Let’s see if this thing comes to life or not.”
With the calendar turning to a new year and the phone still nowhere in sight, it remains uncertain when — or even if — the T1 Phone will finally be released. And even if it does reach the market, it may look very different from what was originally promised when it was first unveiled.
