The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, threatened to “make an alternative phone” in 2022. Drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s brother scammed users with the Escobar Fold in 2019. Now the Trump Organisation wants to monetise the world’s most powerful presidency to market a smartphone and a mobile phone service.

All that we know for sure is that the Trump Organisation is calling the smartphone T1 Phone 8002 (gold version), a colour favoured by US President Donald Trump. The $499 (₹43,000) “made in America” phone can be yours in September if you reserve one now with a $100 down payment, according to the official website.

The world has been offered a glimpse of a haphazardly put-together Photoshopped image with a list of specs that don’t even mention the processor (the heart and soul of any smartphone) that the T1 Phone 8002 is going to use.

A rundown of the spec sheet: 6.78-inch Amoled 120Hz display, three cameras on the back (50MP main with 2MP depth sensor and 2MP macro lens), 16MP selfie snapper, 5,000 mAh battery, 256GB of storage, 12GB of RAM, fingerprint sensor and Android 15.

Even without the processor, some of the specs mentioned are standard in the non-premium Android market, costing far less than $499.

The internals are not difficult to access and a far more impressive device can be purchased through the China-headquartered e-commerce platform Alibaba.

The biggest concern is the “made in the USA” play. Trump recently threatened Apple and other smartphone manufacturers with a tariff of “at least 25 per cent” for iPhones and similar hardware if they are not made in the US.

But nobody is sure if the T1 Phone would be completely manufactured in the US. Tech analyst Max Weinbach from Creative Strategies claims on X that the phone could be “Wingtech REVVL 7 Pro 5G”. He wrote it’s the “same device as the T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G, custom body. Wingtech, now owned by Luxshare, makes it in Jiaxing, Wuxi, or Kunming China”.

In an interview with Fox Business, Eric Trump, son of the US President, has said: “It’s about time we bring products back to our great country, and it’s about time we disrupt this space.”

Members of the Trump Organisation haven’t addressed aspects like software support, privacy or bloatware and if the incoming phone is 8002, whatever happened to 8001. Usually, Apple launches its new series of iPhone in September, so Trump could be looking at ways to upstage the announcement from Apple Park.

As for the mobile network, Trump Mobile’s online “terms of use” mention that it’s “powered by Liberty Mobile Wireless”. Businesses that purchase network capacity from one of the big three US wireless networks — known as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) — is a growing category. For example, the trio who host the popular SmartLess podcast — Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes — recently announced they are starting their own phone company on T-Mobile’s network aimed at low-data-usage customers.

According to TrumpMobile.com, Trump Mobile’s plan starts at $47.45 a month, a reference to Trump having served as the 45th and 47th President. By comparison, Boost Mobile and Verizon’s Visible offer unlimited service for $25 per month.

Further, attention needs to be paid to Trump Mobile’s privacy policy, which allows collection of data from your searches, web browsing, device and location for its “AI systems”.

“We have collected the following categories of sensitive personal information from consumers within the last twelve months: Complete account credentials; mail, email, or text message contents,” mentions the privacy page, without explaining the source at a time the phone seems far from being launched.

The White House hasn’t mentioned whether the US President plans to use his own branded wireless service or the T1 phone. At the moment, Trump brandishes an iPhone.