Donald Trump was determined that Apple will build the iPhone in the United States and he managed to get them to take steps in that direction, but it soon became clear that the 100% American iPhone was a utopia. Things didn’t go as planned, so he did something very Trump: announce its own smartphone made in the USA.
After almost a year since its announcement, the Trump Mobile T1 is already has reached the hands of several analysts and the conclusion is that nothing American. The mobile phone is an old acquaintance and It is mostly made in China.
An HTC U24 Pro with a coat of paint
It is the summary of what they have discovered after analyzing it in detail in iFixit. The mobile phone that promised to be 100% manufactured in the United States is an almost carbon copy of the HTC U24 Prowith the main difference that its back cover is gold and has the American flag engraved with the text ‘Trump Mobile’.
The differences come down to color, the camera module and little else
There are other cosmetic changes, such as the speaker grill having a different pattern and the camera module having a different design, with an oval piece encompassing the three lenses (which by the way is completely misaligned in the photos on the official website). At the specifications level, the only change is that the battery is a little larger than in the original HTC, but it loses the 60W fast charge and is left with only 30W.
At the internal design level, iFixit says that matches point by point with the original HTC model: same component layout, same motherboard and same screen.
In terms of specifications, the HTC U24 Pro was launched in summer 2024, so it does not have the most cutting-edge features. We are talking about a Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chip, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of capacity and a 6.78-inch screen (although the Trump Mobile website says it is 6.8 inches).
Made in China, assembled in the USA (or almost)
First of all, it should be noted that the mobile was announced as “designed and built in the United States”, but In January of this year they lowered the promise by others like “designed with American values in mind” or “proudly assembled in the USA.” This already gave clues of what was to come and the iFixit breakdown confirms it: it is very little American.
In 2017, HTC sold a large part of its smartphone division to Googleabandoning frontline manufacturing. Since then, HTC has turned to Chinese ODMs to be able to manufacture and assemble its phones. Although they have not confirmed it directly, according to The Verge investigation Everything indicates that the HTC U24 Pro is manufactured in Guangdong Yuanchang Electronics, located in (surprise) Guangdong, China.
According to Trump Mobile, the device is assembled in Miami, Florida. Specifically, they say the phone is assembled from “about ten pieces,” which is just enough for the FTC to allow them to use the label. ‘assembled in the USA’. To achieve ‘made in USA’ status that Trump so desired, the FCT is much stricter and requires that “all significant processing” and “all or substantially all” components be manufactured in the United States.
Image | Xataka with Magnific
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