Why Trump Mobiles $499 smartphone likely wont be made in the USA at least not yet

Trump Mobile’s vow to make a $499 gilded smartphone in the US by this summer with some specs that exceed high-end Apple iPhones — and for a fraction of the price — has industry experts calling it fool’s gold.The T1 phone touted by the president’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

will feature a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen, 256GB of storage with expandable memory and a 50-megapixel rear camera array, according to its website.Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max — which is mainly made in China — also offers a 6.8-inch screen and 256 gigabytes of storage, but the rear camera maxes out at 48 megapixels — and costs $1,199.“There’s absolutely no way you could make the screen, get that memory, camera, battery, everything” in the US, Tinglong Dai, a Johns Hopkins University business professor, told the Wall Street Journal.He estimated it would take “at least five years” to build the infrastructure needed for domestic smartphone production.Even Eric Trump appeared to walk back that the T1 will be entirely manufactured and assembled in the US by its expected August launch date during an interview Monday with podcaster Benny Johnson.Holding up what looked like a gold-plated iPhone, he said: “You can build these phones in the United States.

Eventually, all the phones can be built in the United States of America.We have to bring manufacturing back here.”The company said in a press release that the Android-based handset would be “proudly designed and built in the United States.”Trump Mobile has not disclosed where the first wave of T1 phones will be built, or which suppliers will provide the components.The Post has sought comment from Trump Mobile.“If the Trump Phone is promising a $499 price tag with domestic manufacturing, this announcement looks to be classic vaporware,” said Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, referring to the unlikelihood of a US-manufactured phone being available at that price.Given the technical specifications and the $499 price point, an...