Trump Mobile announced its "American-made" $499 T1 smartphone earlier this year, and it was soon pointed out that no device made in the U.S. is anywhere near this cheap and that the renders of the proposed design closely resembled models available in bulk from China. The company soon abandoned its U.S.-made promise, and has now shown off a new design—which The Verge's Dominic Preston points out is a Samsung S25 Ultra in a Spigen case. The case has been photoshopped to include a T, a U.S. flag and what appears to be a random cutout leftover of some layer.
The Trump Mobile team shared an ad to X on Wednesday pushing preorders of the T1, but with an image we'd never seen before. You don't have to look hard to realize that this is an S25 Ultra that's been Photoshopped gold with a T1 logo and US flag; looking a little closer confirms that it's a render of that phone in a Spigen case, right down to the Spigen logo they didn't bother to remove.
Spigen is also dismayed.
If you look closely, you'll see they didn't even remove the relief-cut Spigen logo. That the wheeze here is so amateurish and sloppy is maybe the point: like emails from African bankers and princes, the obviousness of it automatically selects the easiest marks.
Previously: Conservative 'suckers' were primed for Trump
