{"id":303740,"date":"2025-12-07T19:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T19:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/303740\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T19:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T19:15:16","slug":"trump-mobile-is-offering-phones-for-500-they-are-just-refurbished-and-three-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/303740\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Mobile is offering phones for $500 \u2014they are just refurbished, and three years old"},"content":{"rendered":"

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True Donald Trump devotees who put down their $100 deposits are still awaiting the chance to receive one of his family\u2019s $499 golden smartphones for “real Americans”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, perhaps you’d like to buy a refurbished Apple or Samsung phone from several years ago, for up to $225 more than you could get on Amazon?<\/p>\n

That’s the astonishing deal now on offer from Trump Mobile, the patriotic phone vendor launched this June by the President’s family business, the Trump Organization (currently run by his eldest sons Don Jr and Eric Trump)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There’s still no update on the company’s forthcoming T1, a “proudly American” Android handset retailing for $499 that was forced to remove its “MADE IN THE USA” branding<\/a> after experts argued that the facilities to manufacture such devices wholly within the States simply do not exist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That hasn’t stopped the firm hawking refurbished Samsung S23s, S24s, and Apple iPhone 15s and 16s, which appear to have no specific Trump branding and are billed as “brought to life right here in the USA”.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Trump Mobile’s suite of refurbished phones, as of Friday December 5 (Trump Mobile)<\/p>\n

“The Apple iPhone15 Renewed isn\u2019t just another smartphone \u2014 it\u2019s a bold step toward wireless independence,” boasts the company’s online shop.<\/p>\n

“Apple iPhone15 Renewed delivers top-tier performance, sleek design, and powerful features \u2014 all without the inflated price tag.”<\/p>\n

That text is almost identical to the sales pitch for the T1 phone. It’s also flatly untrue, because Trump Mobile’s prices are considerably higher than those charged elsewhere.<\/p>\n

As reported first by Android Authority<\/a> in September, and more recently by The Verge<\/a>, Apple frequently sells<\/a> the iPhone 15 with a $100 discount at $529, compared to Trump Mobile’s $629. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

A non-Trump-branded iPhone enviously displays an image of its inevitable conqueror (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Refurbished iPhone 14s are not officially sold<\/a> by Apple at the moment, but you can currently get one for $305 on Amazon<\/a> or $327 at Best Buy<\/a>. versus Trump Mobile\u2019s $489. The 15 is currently $403<\/a> and $455<\/a> from the same retailers, respectively.<\/p>\n

A refurbished US version of the Samsung Galaxy S23 is $259 on Amazon<\/a> and as little as $249 at Best Buy<\/a>, compared to Trump Mobile’s $369, while the S24 currently goes<\/a> for $389.99<\/a> versus Trump Mobile’s $459.<\/p>\n

The phones are sold with 128 GB of storage without upgrade options, and in only one color (black).<\/p>\n

It’s unclear from Trump Mobile’s promotional material, which bears some patterns<\/a> often considered typical<\/a> of AI-generated writing<\/a>, what justifies these markups.<\/p>\n

Trump Mobile also sells a Trump-branded SIM-only phone plan, which Verge reporter Allison Johnson road-tested<\/a> and found “fine, I guess”.<\/p>\n

The Independent has asked Trump Mobile for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-303740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}