Trump quietly acknowledges China manufactures better than U.S. does.

29 June 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

On June 26th, FORTUNE and Yahoo News headlined “The Trump Organization quietly rescinds ‘built in the U.S.’ promise for its T1 phone after analysts’ consensus pointed to production in China”, and opened:

Trump Mobile has quietly stopped claiming its forthcoming phone will be made in the U.S. The company now uses more vague language in its marketing. It has also reduced the technical specs for the phone and stopped offering a specific date for the launch of its service.

When the Trump Organization announced its cellular brand earlier this month, it touted that the devices would be “made in the USA,” keeping in line with Trump administration policies. Now, just 10 days later, the company is quietly erasing those claims.

The website for the device has removed all language indicating the phone would be manufactured in the U.S. Instead, it opts for language that still leans toward isolationism, but is much more vague now, saying it was “designed with American values in mind” and it was “brought to life right here in the USA.”

The Verge, meanwhile, noted that the specs for the T1 phone have been dialed down since the phone was introduced. The screen is now smaller (having been reduced from 6.78 inches to 6.25 inches) and all information about RAM has been removed.

In addition, while the phones were initially promised to be released in September, the company has since adjusted that language to read “later this year.”

In short: the closer that Trump (’s Organization) gets to offering a cellular phone, the more certain they have become that there is no feasible way for them to have it manufactured in America without greatly raising its price and reducing its promised features. This, however, is NOT the conclusion that most of Yahoo’s readers drew from this news-report. Here, as-of this moment, when there are “1.8K Comments,” at Yahoo, are the most popular (most-up-voted and least down-voted) reader-comments to it:

Robert
1 day ago
Questions abound - Is having the phone made in China part of the trade deal? Is Trump getting special exemptions from tarrifs for his personal phone business? My guess is that he played the China deal to his full personal benefit.
Reply
230
4.1Pogo again
1 hour ago
I am certain Trump is arranging every trade deal to benefit TRUMP!
Reply
85
1
Charmin
5 minutes ago
everything is about him. So don't buy the phone?? China will build anything to keep their people working at slave wages. We need to detach from that. Everything made in China. It's worthless stuff due to being built at high speed, less quality. Only a few things are sincerely American made and a few people refuse to go out of the country to produce.
Reply
3
Show 12 more replies
V
1 day ago

“Trump Mobile has quietly stopped claiming its forthcoming phone will be made in the U.S. The company now uses more vague language in its marketing. It has also reduced the technical specs for the phone and stopped offering a specific date for the launch of its service.” - Oh color me shocked. Not. Now the MAGA crowd are ok with foreign made products again, as long as they add to the coffers of the trump family grift.
Reply
255
3
Ol'Fezziwig
55 minutes ago
Figures. they were suddenly OK with Teslas. Though that didn't last long.
Reply
55
Just another crybaby maga
44 seconds ago
MAGA hated electric vehicles then Trumpy and Musky became friends, suddenly maga loves teslas. Now that Taco Trump and Elonia are no longer talking, maga hates teslas again

Those comments simply ignore the real “news”-content in this important actual news-report, which is that the closer that Trump (’s Organization) gets to offering a celluar phone, the more certain they have become that there is no feasible way for them to have it manufactured in America without greatly raising its price and reducing its promised features.

The American public (like our President) have simply NOT been honestly informed of China’s having already gotten WAY ahead of the United States in manufacturing high quality products at rock-bottom prices.

Now that Trump HIMSELF is trying to make money with a “Made In America” brand on a high-tech product, he has already learned that his policy has been built on lies. So, his ONLY viable option is to QUIETLY violate the promises that he had made about his product.

His now abandoning the “Made In America” promise could doom his entire Presidency, and not MERELY his brand-value.

The ONLY relevant comment among those that I cited was “China will build anything to keep their people working at slave wages. We need to detach from that. Everything made in China. It's worthless stuff due to being built at high speed, less quality.” And it is FALSE: it merely PRESUMES that China’s leapfrogging over what HAD BEEN (last Century) the leading manufacturing nation (America) has been due NOT to “slave wages” and “less quality” (as had been the China of Mao Zedong, pre-Deng Xiaoping), but to China’s having soared ahead of the U.S. since 1998. How did they do it? They did it by being far less corrupt than the U.S. is. That less-corrupt Government catapulted China to the top. (But U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media have instead ‘informed’ Americans that it has happened from “slave wages” and “less quality.”)

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.