A grift? From Trump? How could we possibly have gotten here?
Nearly 600,000 Trump supporters paid £74 ($100) each towards a gold smartphone that, nearly a year on, does not exist.
The Trump Mobile T1 phone was announced in June 2025 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as a patriotic alternative to Apple and Samsung, retailing at £370 ($499) and promising a ‘Made in the USA’ build.
An estimated 590,000 buyers paid a £74 ($100) deposit to secure one, collectively handing the venture roughly £43.7 million ($59 million). As of May 2026, not a single confirmed customer has received the device. Now, a fresh wave of anger is spreading across MAGA forums after buyers received communication making clear that their money is, for all practical purposes, gone.
Being in a panopticon prison state has a way of dissuading people from doing the needful.
Obviously there’s more nuance than that, but…
Maybe to get an idea of what’s going on, look at the timeline at https://maps.deflock.org/timeline
I don’t have the spoons for more explanations right now, but we know how badly we’re getting fleeced.