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MAGAs Are Fuming After Email Confirms They Will Never Get Their $500 Trump Phones or Deposits Back
(www.ibtimes.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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Anyone else find it hard to believe that there were 600,00 orders for this. That feels like another money laundering situation.
Edit: 600K
Well, there over 200 million adult US citizens, assume 1/3 are trump supporters that's 60 million potential customers, it's not unrealistic for 1% of them to have placed a $100 deposit on a trump branded phone.
I'm just more surprised they decided to not ship anything. They could've simply gone to any ODM ordered a generic design but in gold color and called it a day. Heck they could run an actual MVMO sell some overpriced android phones as carrier branded devices, sell some overprice cell service, then sell the brand off to wash their hands of it and probably would've made far more than the paltry $6 million that they did make in pre-order deposits
Edit: I was off by a zero they made ~$60 million in deposits
It took Google a year to sell over a million pixels when they released, they didn't even hit 600,000 sold in their first 3 quarters (looking at all of North America) - https://coolest-gadgets.com/google-smartphone-statistics/
So 600,000 people putting down a $100 deposit for a terrible phone is definitely suspicious.
Google doesnt have the cult following trump has.
I mean they could have jumped on Alibaba, had a customized firmware, had the "gold" color, had a logo or something screen printed on the outside, and probably spent less than $100/phone, at least if current listings are correct. Sell the things for like $299 and they clear $200 profit on each with nearly no effort.
That's exactly who an ODM is, and Original Design Manufacturer. In the mobile space it's generally some tech giant like Foxconn which makes tons of devices for tons of brands, and they generally have their own generic designs that they'll happily white label for any brand
Alot of these sellers on Alibaba aren't nearly up to what an ODM is. They're sorta more like middlemen that do stuff like take generic phones from ODMs and customize them or just grab parts off the local market and slap them together. To work with somebody like Foxconn, you'd better have some significant volumes - they just won't talk to you otherwise. Now, maybe Trump is an exception there, but they're still not going to want to do business unless there's decent volume in it for them. The volumes I've seen for this phone is the sort of thing that wouldn't even register for them. They'd only even think about it as a way to buy favor.
600'000 times hundred would be 60 million dollars, you're off by a decimal. But still, agreed on your point
Would have been funny if they did that and it turned out to be the crappiest phone ever
I also imaging a fair number are YouTube types getting it for the curiosity clicks.
But that would have required actual work on their part, and maybe, just maybe they have enough self-awareness to realize they would probably have screwed this up and made no profit.
You look at the sales numbers for the dumbest crap and it isn't hard to believe.
77 million people voted for this moron to run the country. For a second time.
So yes, i fully believe less than 1% of them bought trump phones.
.... Third.
its well known its a money laundering scheme from the billionaires/putin/ISRAELI backers, nothing more. much like his CASINOS were the vehicle for laundering russian money. Maga is unable to connect the dots together. "if its too good to be true, it must be true" for them.
The Verge certainly doesn't think that 600,000 is the real figure: https://www.theverge.com/tech/863381/trump-mobile-viral-preorder-figures-600000
Not really. For a paltry $6 million gross, this wouldn't be worth the risk from lawsuits. Regardless of what people signed from the preorders. Plus, have you meet any of his diehard supporters? They're certainly on board with this. They already buy watches and other crap.
While I appreciate the money laundering suggestion, there's much easier ways to do that at a larger scale. The crypto scam, for example.
Edit:yep, $60 million. My bad math. Far more worth it.
Check out the video from penguinz0 on this topic, who ordered one for the lolz. The terms and conditions on the website pretty much state that there is no guarantee that the phone will ever be delivered, or how it looks, or what features it will have. Every section reads like it's for a product that's only on sale to scam people, and that there might never be a phone, and no obligation to get the deposit back.
Wouldn't it be 60 million if it's 600k people x $100 deposit though?
Yep, you're right. My mistake.
60 million, right? That's not pocket change for anyone!
Yep, my bad math. Good catch. Far more worth it.
Don't forget the betting via polymarket and so on
Risks are only for those who play fair. I'm not sure if there is anything Trump and his family could do that would make them actually face consequences, besides maybe loosing the midterms.
Sorry but are those 60000 as in 60k with a unusual (non western (EU)) decimal?
No, just a typo the article says 600,000 or 600K