Trump phone ditches 'made in America' claim and shrinks in size

Just days after launch, the Trump-branded smartphone is already shifting its promises – and ditching its “Made in America” claim.

According to a new report in The Verge, the T1 Phone 8002 “gold version,” sold through the recently launched Trump Mobile wireless carrier, no longer advertises itself as “Made in the USA.” That claim, once prominently featured on its webpage, has been scrubbed entirely.

“Instead, the Trump Mobile website now includes what can only be described as vague, pro-American gestures in the direction of smartphone manufacturing,” The Verge reported Wednesday. “The T1’s new tagline is “Premium Performance. Proudly American.’”

The website now says only that the device is “designed with American values in mind.”

Veteran tech reporter David Pierce, The Verge’s editor-at-large, noted that those phrases don’t actually mean the phone is made – or even designed – in the United States. Another line says there are “American hands behind every device,” but offers no specifics.

“There are just… some hands. In America,” Pierce wrote Wednesday.

That’s not the only change, The Verge report added.

“It was originally advertised to have a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen, but now the T1’s site says it’s 6.25 inches,” according to the tech publication. “The site used to list the phone as having 12GB of RAM, and now doesn’t list RAM at all.”

The launch time has also become blurred. The T1 was originally promised to ship in September, but has shifted that timeframe to “later this year.”

As Pierce put it: “It’s not entirely clear what’s happening here.” The Trump Organization didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the writer pointed out that “it looks like Trump Mobile may have switched suppliers for the T1.”

“Whatever’s going on, it’s certainly another reason to doubt whether this phone is for real,” Pierce concluded.