Wait, the Trump phone might actually exist

Last week, I reiterated that Trump Mobile’s T1 phone does not exist and may never exist, despite the fact that the company showed me a phone in an effort to convince me otherwise. Instead, today I bring some reason for optimism to supporters of the Trump phone: it appears to have been certified by the FCC.

FCC listings for a smartphone with the trade name “T1” show that it was tested late last year and received FCC certification in January. That matches what two Trump Mobile executives told me last month when I saw the phone, when they claimed it had already received certification.

The listing documents are redacted, which is typical of public FCC listings, and therefore do not contain any images or photographs of the phone. They also don’t confirm many interesting specs, beyond support for Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. They don’t mention Trump, Trump Mobile, or even the carrier’s parent company, Liberty Mobile, which is why it took me until now to find them. Instead, the phone was subjected to testing by another company: Smart Gadgets Global, LLC. And It is why I’m so sure it’s the Trump phone.

The Smart Gadgets Global website promises “premium quality electronics created for “YOUR” customer!” ” and claims to provide “product development, material sourcing, production through to final packaging of your product or private labeling of one of ours.” The site is as outdated and error-filled as any other Trump Mobile-affiliated website I’ve found so far, with an empty “Shop” section, a “Terms and Conditions” page that only contains instructions on how to write terms and conditions, and a privacy policy listed as “coming soon.” There’s also a chatbot, but it couldn’t tell me anything about the T1 phone, where Smart Gadgets Global makes its products, or what the company actually does.

Smart Gadgets Global may be a new name to me, but its CEO is not: Eric Thomas, one of two Trump Mobile executives I spoke with last month. I had to be sure it was the even Eric Thomas, but it turned out to be pretty simple: Smart Gadgets Global’s FCC filings list an address in Ogden, Utah – the exact same address listed as a mailbox for construction and excavation companies owned by Eric Thomas who I met. Then there’s the only identifiable product on Smart Gadgets Global’s website among a sea of ​​generic renderings: a Vmed Mobile-branded health tracker. This appears to be made by Smart Gadgets Ltd., a company based in Shenzhen, China, which claims to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Vmedical, Inc. – of which Thomas is the CEO.

I contacted Thomas and Trump Mobile, but neither responded. I also tried Thomas at the Smart Gadgets Global email address listed in the FCC documents, but I also didn’t receive a response, nor did I hear back from a request I made using Smart Gadgets Global’s contact form. I also tried calling the number listed as Thomas’ on the FCC applications, but after telling the automated call screening software who I was, whoever was on the other side of that number decided not to take my call. I also contacted Eurofins, the testing lab listed in some documentation, but did not hear back. For good measure, I tried T-Mobile again to see if it had completed its own certification of the T1 phone, but the company declined to comment.

FCC certification does not guarantee that the Trump Phone will be released imminently, if at all. But this is further proof that Trump Mobile is at least to attempt make and launch some kind of telephone. However, the jury is still out on whether this will actually succeed.

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