New York
CNN
—
The Trump Organization is licensing the Trump name for a new wireless service that’s being marketed to the president’s supporters and puts the brand in competition with major phone carriers like AT&T and Verizon and smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung.
“A big part of what we’ve done … has been focused on technology for people who have been underserved, whether that’s been in crypto or anything else, but one of the places where we felt there was lackluster performance was in the mobile industry,” Donald Trump Jr. said early Monday at an event at Trump Tower in New York.
A website for the project advertises a $47.45 a month plan, an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s terms as the 47th and 45th president of the United States. The Trumps emphasized the new mobile company’s focus on American-made devices — a gold-hued “T1” smartphone was available for pre-order Monday for $499 — and US-based services.
“You’re not calling up call centers in Bangladesh,” Eric Trump told Fox Business in an interview Monday. “You’re doing it right out of St. Louis, Missouri.”
“With Trump Mobile, we’re going to be introducing an entire package of products,” Trump Jr. said, including telemedicine, roadside assistance and unlimited texting.
The announcement, timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the day Donald Trump took the golden escalator down to announce his 2016 presidential run, marks the latest expansion of the Trump family business into tech, cryptocurrencies and media.
The vast and growing scale of the Trump family businesses — which include long-held real estate and casino holdings along with more recent forays into digital finance and branded tchotchkes — has deepened concerns about the president’s willingness to flout ethics conventions while in office. (The White House has repeatedly denied any suggestion of impropriety. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has previously said it’s “ridiculous” that anyone would suggest Trump is “doing anything for his own benefit” and that the White House holds itself to the “highest of ethical standards.”)
The Trump Organization is the main holding company for President Trump’s private businesses, and it is run by his eldest sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
The mobile service will work with all three major wireless carriers, the Trump Organization said.
