i tried getting scammed, instead i'm getting a trump phone

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]So, I tried to get scammed a couple days ago by ordering the Trump One mobile phone. I've been watching with great interest as this thing has been delayed.

[00:00:10]They have changed their terms of service. All the bag holders have been getting depressed, more depressed. And right when I thought, oh, this is for sure, you know, a scam, I decided that's when I'm going to put my little purchase in, secure my spot as one of the scams so I could make some content out of it.

[00:00:28]to be honest. In fact, I just made a video over on my Patreon. I was planning on posting it here as well, only to find out a day after I tried to get scammed by basically putting a deposit down on the Trump One mobile phone cuz I was like, you know, like everyone, I was like, this is not coming out. All of a sudden, we get this from the official Trump mobile account. It's it's an announcement of the device. They're actually going to do it.

[00:00:55]>> Introducing the new T1 phone from Trump mobile. A powerful device designed for performance, reliability, and real American value.

[00:01:04]>> Guys, you have to you have to understand. I mean, I cannot make up this timing here. Literally the last man to get scammed. I want you to look at that date. Tuesday, May 12th. I put down this order thinking, "Okay, maybe it's a good time to throw my hat in the ring."

[00:01:23]May 13th, they come out with the device.

[00:01:26]I mean, you can't make this up. I was like, I'm get my money back. It's going to be a funny story. Instead, I'm I'm gonna be owning the Trump phone. This is the real scam. Honestly, I couldn't be more disappointed with this outcome. AND IT BEGS THE QUESTION, WHAT DID THEY KNOW? Was Baron Trump sitting there monitoring the order status? And he's like, "Release it, guys." He put in the order. It's time to drop the trailer.

[00:01:46]Now, I'm going to talk about the whole, you know, the fact they uh, you know, said this was going to be made in America. the fact that they kind of changed the terms as far as how much it's going to cost. But now I am am I locked into buying? I feel like I am. I mean, the fact that they went as so far as to, you know, put some gold on a device, actually ship it, I think I owe it to the Trump brothers to actually purchase this thing. But yeah, I I think I'm more disappointed in this outcome.

[00:02:13]And the main reason for that is that by all accounts, like this is a very mediocre phone and I already have a phone. I'm going to leave it to the tech YouTubers to actually break down the specifics of this, but for those of you who don't know, this is not going to be some high-end flagship device, even though that's kind of how they're pitching it.

[00:02:29]>> The T1 delivers the speed and responsiveness you expect from a flagship smartphone without the flagship price.

[00:02:37]>> But I just think it's so funny that they're actually going to deliver this thing uh right exactly at the moment that I thought, you know, they're they're they're finally pulling the rug.

[00:02:46]They're not going to do it. I mean, they just updated their terms essentially saying if you put a deposit down, it gives you no access to that claim.

[00:02:54]Except for this thing, which contradicts that. It says those who pre-ordered will receive an update email. So, I'm just waiting. Pins and needles. I don't know.

[00:03:01]Is this coming or is this the most elaborate scheme ever? Like, it also does kind of remind me of uh the Firefest 2 where I, you know, I purchased that too. I was ready to get scammed there as well. And then it looked like they were going to do it and they kept, you know, making announcements after announcements. I even talked to Billy McFarland, uh, only to later realize they weren't going to do it. So, I I I don't really know. Is this happening? Is it not? For the first time, we see signs of life out of the Trump mobile thing. I We really haven't seen anything else, but now all of a sudden, we This is kind of a first look.

[00:03:33]It's just It's kind of crazy. It's the first sign of life here. So, yeah, credit where credit is due. It looks like I will actually be the owner of a T1 device. And yeah, I'm going to attach the video I was going to do two days before just so you can see it. I think it's important, you know, when I say stuff like this. If uh something changes and I want to eat crow here, I'm not saying that I'm 100% infallible. You will see that at the time I thought the release of this thing was unlikely at best. But while I make some points about made in America, all that stuff, which I think stands, it kind of got one over on me. I got to admit, I think this is pretty funny in hindsight because uh really they got the last laugh.

[00:04:14]>> How is that not fraud? You are blatantly misleading them on purpose. How is that not fraudulent? I have been summoned like a apparition with the question, is this a scam? Is it a fraud? I have been watching like many people with great interest. Will Moist Critical ever get his Trump phone? Will anyone who ordered it? Supposedly there were, you know, up to $60 million of early deposits. Will any of them get their T1 mobile phone?

[00:04:44]This was announced in 2025. And, you know, I I just kind of assumed that they they have to deliver it, right? And then just recently, some new language got put into place that basically says that there is a uh it's just a conditional opportunity. They don't actually have to do any of it. Specifically, the website says it does not create a contract for sale, guarantee ownership, title interest, and does not guarantee a device would be produced.

[00:05:09]>> So, they're not even guaranteeing that the device is being produced or will be made available for purchase.

[00:05:15]>> So, this seems to have been added just recently, leading many to believe that this is all part of a, you know, they're giving themselves the out to maybe one day not deliver. And this got me thinking about the larger uh product. I didn't really realize how bad this was.

[00:05:31]and uh specifically how they probably violated one of like the new executive orders that has come out about made in the USA language. So uh I want to walk you guys through that. I just recently purchased one of these phones. I will uh show the receipt on screen. You'll notice that nowadays when you actually buy the phone, they have you check a box which is essentially agreeing to the new terms. One of them being they don't actually have to make a phone. Like for some reason there's you're just going to give them $100. Maybe a phone comes out of it, maybe not. Maybe they give you your money back. But something that I didn't hear talked about a lot was specifically the uh new language around made in America, right? I don't know if you guys know this, but there has been a big push to get made in America. The phrase to be not just anyone can say it, right? You have to actually not take advantage of people. This has been a long time thing. People would make products and say it's made in the USA and actually it's not. And so this is an executive order from the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, ensuring truthful advertising of products to be uh claiming to be made in America. Now, some of you guys may not know, but Trump mobile, so this is my product. Uh, you know, my I'm a valued customer and some of you may not know that actually the Trump mobile T1 phone said it was made in the USA. Okay, this was back in uh June 16th, 2025. This is like one of their initial ways of promoting it. Now, uh let's go back to the language of this executive action cuz the question is is like is this a scam? like is this what is going on here? And basically it may be in violation of this cuz it says uh the manufacturers's claim that a product is made in America or any similar American origin claims constitutes a violation of law. This executive order says Americans have a right to clear, accurate, substantiated, and accessible information regarding whether products advertised as made in America are actually made in the United States.

[00:07:35]Protecting American consumers from fraudulent American origin claims also benefits businesses investing in American manufacturing products. Makes sense, right? You don't want to buy something that you are told is made in America and is ultimately not. Well, uh, you know, is Trump phone made in America? Well, let let's see what they say in their announcement >> this morning. You've got an announcement on a new phone. Tell me about that and and what you're looking to quote unquote correct here. And Trump mobile is going to revolutionize uh kind of, you know, cell phones um mobile calling. We're going to do it better. We're going to do it safer. We're going to have more functionality, more features. Um and the coolest thing about all these ventures is we're doing it right here in the United States. You're not calling up call centers in Bangladesh. You're not, you know, you're doing it right out of St. Louis, Missouri. And you're going to have um phones that are made right here in the United States of America. Eric is in charge of our division which builds the phones which by the way are going to be made here in the USA. So we'll be employing people for customer service, for remanufacturing of phones as well as for the opportunity of building our own phone.

[00:08:41]>> Okay, so that's a pretty specific claim, right? And that's why unambiguously on June 16th on their big day when they're announcing this stuff, they say it's made in the USA. Although when you go to it later, all of a sudden you get a little change to the website. It says customer service call center is based in the USA.

[00:09:04]What? So, we've gone from the entire phone made in the USA to Okay, we put our call center there. We put our call center in the United States and then uh later I I checked again and now they're specifically uh promoting designed with American values in mind. Now, how does that work? So you could be in China, but you know, you're you're thinking about America. I'm thinking about bald eagles as I'm designing your phone. What is designed with American values in mind?

[00:09:33]American proud design. How does this not constitute a violation of this made in America thing? They're very clearly pitching, hey, you know, we're American design, American values. They even say brought to life right here in the USA.

[00:09:52]American hands behind every device.

[00:09:54]That's very clearly pitching people on the idea that this is Americanmade, but actually it doesn't appear to be. And that actually is the entire point of this executive order is to stop people from ripping off customers who are trying to, you know, buy American. You shouldn't be confused by a marketplace that is trying to upsell you a product that is actually just bought overseas and reskinned or whatever. So, I've been finding it fascinating reading these changes in language and realizing like, oh, they're like doing the thing that we apparently are making laws not to do, which is they're just using the American brand, the American identity, and then are they is the phone actually it's like the all about the phone, right? Like is the phone actually from America? Uh, it appears not to be, but if you talk to a guy on the phone, he's probably American. Here's another for example. T1 phone is not just powerful. It's shaped by American innovation with American teams helping guide design and quality.

[00:10:53]Again, just tell me if it's from a Chinese factory. Okay, don't lie to me.

[00:11:00]Just Okay, I know you're sitting there, you know, in New York and you're shaping design. You're guiding quality, you know, going to Alibaba and picking your favorite phone, but just please like, right, stop lying to me. So, this is insane. I mean, when I saw this, I go, "Oh, this is way worse than I thought. I thought this was just I mean, I guess it matters if there's a phone at all. That of course matters. But, you know, there was this very clear claim, hey, this is an American phone." And they've continued to make this American identity link.

[00:11:31]>> We're doing it right here in the United States. Right here in the United States of America, >> going to be made here in the USA. when in actuality a lot of the speculation has been this is just going to be a you know a Chinese phone or a phone from overseas that is reskinned because that's where a lot of the manufacturing experience is quite frankly it's just not possible I mean doesn't seem to be possible to make a super affordable phone here in America that's competitive like they wanted a $499 phone you think you're making that in New York City I mean I I don't think so also wanted to add to that a big inspiration for this video is obviously uh Moist Critical's, you know, kind of saga on this. And one thing he brings up, which I think is a great point, is the idea of a price lock. Why do you even put deposits down on products in the first place? Often times, one of the incentives for doing so is the idea that you're getting some kind of special price. And that's quite literally like in the website itself. It says at the top leftand corner, lock in your T1 promotional pricing. Now, what's the promotional price? $4.99. But what do the terms and conditions say?

[00:12:37]>> It does not price lock. So when you pre-order, you put the $100 down, you are not price locked. It is literally telling you that that's what you're doing. But then when you look at their terms, it's saying, "No, that's not actually what you're doing." How is that not fraudulent? I mean, that's just crazy to me that you can get away with that. Like even even their product photos, like it's just they're like, "Well, maybe it's going to look like that. Maybe it's not." At every turn, this is just a halfway done, arguably in violation of an executive order about made in America advertising, at least initially, before they kind of changed it. I mean, but the whole way it's just like not what it looks like. And that's literally just on the phone side of it.

[00:13:17]You also have uh they're also selling like mobile wireless for $47 a month, which if you know these like budget providers, that's what they're doing.

[00:13:26]They don't actually have any infrastructure. They're not like Verizon or T-Mobile. They actually, you know, use those networks and offer something like Mint Mobile. So, if you compare them to that, they're actually pretty expensive. But not only that, Stson Dogit actually signed up for one of these plans. He's a YouTuber. And what he found is there was very high fees on top of it. When you actually go to check out, you will see the telecom tax being added to the cost of the plan. And this is really high. I'm seeing $14.52 here in Longmont, Colorado, which is over 30% the cost of the plan. So yeah, you're paying 30% in telecom tax. So actually your plan is $61 a month. And when you read the fine print, you get unlimited talk, texting. The big one is data though. That's what everyone cares about. 20 gigs at high speed. And then they throttle you down, like way down.

[00:14:22]So, if you just compare that to Mint Mobile, it's like $30 a month for unlimited. Uh, it's it just it's just a bad deal. I mean, just like pretty objectively, unless you're really into they also offer all these like other benefits that I guess may matter to people like teleaalth and uh roadside assistance. But I think objectively for most people, this is just going to be a bad financial deal. You know, even if you get your Trump phone, Trump mobile also doesn't seem like that good of a deal. But the Trump phone itself is just like on life support. We have no idea what it looks like. All the promotional images are essentially uh, you know, renderings that are not actual real phones. Like you can even check how the camera back has changed over time. Like every time you go to their website, it seems like there's some new, you know, sort of design that's actually not the design. So yeah, even I was surprised at what a disaster uh this product was going in. You know, I kind of thought, well, they have to deliver this eventually, except uh now in their specific terms, no, they do not. Like just very explicitly, they don't have to do it. So, to finally come back to the question for which I was summoned in the first place, is this a scam? Obviously, I think so. Like if you bought this thinking you'd get it when they said you would. If you bought this thinking this was 100% made in America or if you bought it thinking you're locking in your price, all of that appears to have changed. So I think those people got scammed. What's funny though is I think I I kind of didn't cuz I guess I knew all of those risks going in. At this point if you're buying the Trump phone, you know it's very likely you're not getting it. One, two, you know it's very likely coming from China if you do get it. So all of those risks are kind of known going in. So ironically for me, I guess it just was like a business transaction. Uh but I think I'm about the only one who got a good deal on this. All right, so anyway, uh that's basically it. I'll see you in the next one.