Trump T1 is a rebranded HTC phone — with a wrong flag and slower charging
The Trump T1 phone, sold on a promise of American manufacture, is a lightly modified version of the 2024 HTC U24 Pro — a Taiwanese handset built with Chinese components. A detailed teardown by iFixit, conducted in partnership with NBC News, leaves little room for doubt. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation in January 2026 after Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic colleagues flagged the "Made in USA" marketing as potentially false advertising.
The teardown
iFixit compared the T1 and HTC U24 Pro side by side, using CT scans and full disassembly down to individual components. The internal layouts are nearly identical. The only meaningful hardware differences: the T1 carries a 5,000 mAh battery versus the U24 Pro's 4,600 mAh, and uses a Micron memory chip instead of SK Hynix. The flash position and speaker grille were slightly repositioned — cosmetic adjustments, not engineering ones.
To close the case, iFixit pulled the HTC U24 Pro's motherboard and installed it directly into the T1 chassis. The phone booted normally.
The flag, the claims, the price
The T1's American flag has 11 stripes. The US flag has 13, representing the original colonies. Trump Mobile has not commented on the discrepancy.
The marketing story has quietly changed over time. Trump Mobile originally advertised the T1 as "Made in USA," then softened that to "Proudly Assembled in USA," and has since retreated further to promoting "American values." The FTC standard requires a product to be "all or virtually all" domestically made to carry a "Made in USA" label — a bar the T1, with its Taiwanese design and Chinese parts, does not clear.
The T1's American flag displays 11 stripes instead of the correct 13.
At $499, the T1 costs less than the HTC U24 Pro, which is available at Walmart for $549.99 with the same core specs. Trump Mobile began taking $100 deposits nearly a year ago, but the phone has not reached general retail. A pre-order data breach earlier this year revealed roughly 30,000 actual pre-orders — far short of the 600,000 the company had claimed. So far, only select journalists and influencers have received units, per IBTimes UK.
What this means
If you put down a $100 deposit, the phone you eventually receive will likely perform like a mid-range 2024 Android — because that is what it is. The charging speed has been cut from 60W on the U24 Pro to 30W on the T1, meaning slower top-ups with no obvious explanation. The repairability score from iFixit sits at 3 out of 10. The FTC investigation is ongoing; no timeline for resolution has been set.
