Will the “Trump Mobile” smartphone really be “made in America”?

The promotional image of the T1 Phone, the smartphone that the Trump Organization plans to launch in August, at a price of $499, or about 430 euros, features a watermarked flag on a gold case, and, on the screen, a reminder of the presidential slogan, “Make America great again.”

This smartphone accompanies the birth of a new mobile phone operator, announced Monday, June 16, from Trump Tower in New York by the American president's sons, Eric and Donald Jr., who share the management of the family company. The device, with "specs that surpass those of the highest-end iPhone, according to The Wall Street Journal , would be 'proudly designed and manufactured in the United States ,'" boasts the group's communication.

But the leading American business daily doesn't believe it for a second. Donald Trump, with his tariff war, is well on his way to relocating manufacturing to the United States, but "supply chain experts agree that it would take several years and several billion dollars for the United States to develop the factories and skill sets needed to match China's phone production." And even if production were relocated, "the labor and infrastructure costs would be astronomical," forcing manufacturers to pass the price on to consumers.

Yet, the Trump Organization claims that “manufacturing of the new phone will be done in Alabama, California, and Florida.” However, Eric Trump spilled the beans on podcaster Benny Johnson’s show on Monday, June 16. While showing off a gold T1 Phone and saying that “all phones will eventually be made in the United States,” he agreed that “the first wave of phones would not be manufactured there.”

And the Wall Street Journal 's technology columnist continues: "So it's possible, even likely, that these phones will initially come from China," with the only manufacturers in the world capable of competing at this price being Chinese, "like Xiaomi and Oppo."