Democratic lawmakers urge FTC to launch investigation into Trump's T1 phones
WASHINGTON, DC: A group of Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and 10 other members of the House and the Senate, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Trump Mobile’s T1 phones on Thursday, January 15.
The Democratic lawmakers asked the regulators to investigate the possible violations of the consumer protection laws, noting that the product might not have been made in America as advertised.
Trump Mobile pulls back on 'Made in USA' claim
The Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, which was later obtained by NBC News. In the letter, the lawmakers urged an investigation into the Trump Mobile’s T1 phones that were announced in June 2025 and were to be released in August.
The phones are yet to be released, and the lawmakers want the agency to investigate if the company cheated the consumers by asking them to pay $100 deposits for the phones that have not been released yet.
They also wanted to launch an investigation into the company’s “Made in USA” campaign, which was later changed on the website.
The T1 phones, which were initially described as domestically created on the website, changed the mention to “American-proud design” less than a month after the launch announcement.
“The FTC’s response to any violations of consumer protection law by Trump Mobile will serve as a critical test of the FTC’s independence and commitment to its mission of ‘protecting the public from deceptive or unfair business practices,” the letter read.
The letter was co-signed by Elizabeth Warren, Robert Garcia, Chris Van Hollen, Adam Schiff, Ed Markey, Doris Matsui, Maxwell Frost, Summer Lee, Greg Casar, Jan Schakowsky, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
T1 phones reportedly in \final stages of testing
A representative of the Trump Mobile customer service spoke to USA Today on Tuesday, January 12, and revealed when consumers could expect the much-awaited T1 phones to be launched.
The representative said that the phone was completing its final stages of regulatory testing and was expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2026.
Earlier, a representative told Fortune Magazine that the launch of the product had been delayed due to the government shutdown.
“They had to pause everything on the FCC side of things,” the representative told Fortune.
The shutdown had allegedly disrupted the shipments of the $499 device and was expected to resume services from mid January 2026.
International Data Corporation analyst Francisco Jeronimo spoke to the Associated Press about him being suspicious of the Trump Mobile phone. He said that the organization had always been “quite skeptical.”
“They are probably finding that it is harder to build a phone than they thought it would be. Let’s see if this thing comes to life or not,” Jeromino said.
He added that they may have changed their strategy and figured out they are better off selling refurbished phones,” as he discussed Trump Mobiles selling refurbished versions of old iPhones and Samsung phones.
