Who is really behind the Trump Mobile T1 phone?

In case you missed it, the Trump Organization announced yesterday that it plans to release a $499 Trump-branded, “built in the United States” phone later this year. A spokesperson for the Trump Organization doubled down on this claim to The Wall Street Journal, saying “manufacturing for the new phone will be in Alabama, California and Florida.”

But unless the organization has somehow hidden an entire domestic mobile device supply chain right under our noses, this is virtually impossible. The T1 Phone, as it’s called, lists some decent midrange specs like a 6.8-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate screen. Offering it for $500 as soon as this fall? That would take a miracle. Case in point: a company called Purism makes a device called the Liberty Phone, which sources many of its parts from US companies and assembles it here. The cost? $2000, and you won’t find something as luxurious as an OLED panel there.

More likely the T1 will be a white label device with most or all of its production handled by a Chinese ODM, or original design manufacturer. These dozen or so companies are responsible for as much as 44 percent of smartphone shipments globally, largely handling budget models while OEMs like Samsung and Huawei focus on producing their own high-end devices.

So, which of these budget phones is closest to the pin? Because we love a good mystery, Verge staff spent the past 24 hours combing the likes of Amazon and GSMArena trying to piece it together.

With just a dubious set of specs to go on, we’ve narrowed it down to a handful of devices that might fit the description. Is the real T1 Phone somewhere in the mix? Will it be a customized version of one of these devices built to the Trump Organization’s specifications? Was this all a silly waste of time because this phone does not and will never exist at all? Who can say? In the meantime, leave a comment and let us know if you figured it out.

We found this one on Amazon through a rigorous search process, by which I mean we typed “Big Android phone” into the search bar. It’s the spitting image of an iPhone, or at least looks like someone used a rendering of a rumored iPhone and added the word DOOGEE to it. The camera array looks about right, and the screen is the correct size. It also claims to run Android 15. But it comes with a 6250mAh battery, which is bigger than the 5000mAh cell in the T1 that was initially described as a “long life camera” on the product page. Someone eventually fixed that yesterday, I guess.

We’ve got another iPhone imitator here, and this one has the right RAM and storage combo, plus its 6.78-inch screen matches the description. But it’s a 90Hz panel, and the T1 Phone claims to have a 120Hz display. The Ulefone also has an ultrawide camera, which the T1 seems not to have. But can’t you picture it in Mar-A-Lago Gold? Wouldn’t it be just fetching?

Made by Wingtech, the Revvl 7 was at one point sold under T-Mobile branding. It’s no longer listed on T-Mobile’s website, but you can still find it on Amazon. If you split the difference between it and the Revvl 7 Pro, which was mysteriously pulled from shelves last fall and analyst Max Weinbach certainly thinks is a top contender for the T1, then you get something that looks a lot like the T1’s description. Maybe there’s a custom version somewhere between the two.

Maybe it’s the marble accents on this one, but I feel like this is a strong contender. This one has the headphone jack and the right-sized 6.8-inch screen, though it’s a 90Hz panel. There’s the Bold K20 too, which conveniently already comes in a gold finish. It would look right at home next to a bunch of gold spray painted decor from Alibaba.