In May 2026, a claim circulated online that 600,000 people who had put down $100 deposits for a "Trump" branded phone would lose their money and never get a device.
For example, one Reddit post (archived) featuring the claim was titled: "MAGAs Are Fuming After Email Confirms They Will Never Get Their $500 Trump Phones or Deposits Back | The T1 'Trump phone' promised a 'Made in the USA' build but left buyers without devices or refunds."
MAGAs Are Fuming After Email Confirms They Will Never Get Their $500 Trump Phones or Deposits Back | The T1 'Trump phone' promised a 'Made in the USA' build but left buyers without devices or refunds.
by u/IntnsRed in news2
Similar iterations of the claim spread on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), X (archived) and Bluesky (archived), where users said customers paid $100 deposits. Snopes readers also contacted us to ask about the allegation.
There is no evidence that Trump Mobile, a wireless company licensed to use the Trump branding associated with U.S. President Donald Trump, told people who paid $100 deposits for the so-called T1 phone they would not receive a device or get their money back.
Rather, in April 2026, Trump Mobile updated its preorder deposit terms and conditions to allow customers to refund their deposits before purchase or for the company to refund deposits if it decides to not sell the T1.
Trump Mobile said (archived) on May 13, 2026, it would start shipping T1 phones that week, momentarily dispelling concerns that customers who paid preorder deposits would not get a device. Trump Mobile's phone network has reportedly been live since June 2025.
(X account @TrumpMobile)
There is also no evidence that nearly 600,000 people (some iterations of the claim said 590,000) had paid $100 deposits for Trump Mobile's T1 phone. That unproven number appeared to come from social media posts, according to technology news publication The Verge, which also reported that Trump Mobile executives had refused to confirm how many preorder deposits the company had taken.
Ultimately, it would only be clear whether people who paid preorder deposits for the T1 phone lost money when or if Trump Mobile actually sold the phone. Given Trump Mobile had not delivered any phones at the time of this writing, we leave this claim unrated.
Snopes contacted Trump Mobile to ask about the rumor it emailed nearly 600,000 customers to say it would not produce the T1 phone nor refund their deposits. We await a reply.
Deposits are refundable, Trump Mobile terms say
The claim that Trump Mobile told customers via email it would not sell them a phone nor refund their deposits appeared to be based on unsubstantiated
Snopes contacted the outlets that published the articles above to ask if they had seen examples of the emails they reported on and await a reply.
It is possible Trump Mobile emailed consumers about its updated "Preorder deposit terms and conditions" and that those terms, which the company updated on April 6, 2026, were misinterpreted by some media outlets.
The terms say that paying a preorder deposit to Trump Mobile (such as the $100 for the T1) does not guarantee that the company could or would ultimately make any given product. The terms also detail how customers could get their preorder deposits back. A section titled "Deposit Cancellation and Refund" reads (emphasis ours):
If you cancel your deposit before completing a purchase, you may request a full refund. Refund requests must be submitted through Trump Mobile customer support prior to completion of a final sale. If Trump Mobile cancels or discontinues the Device offering prior to sale, Trump Mobile will issue a full refund of the deposit amount paid. Deposits do not accrue interest, are non-transferable, and have no independent cash value except as expressly provided in these Terms or required by applicable law. Approved refunds will be issued to the original payment method and may take several business days to process, depending on your financial institution and other events outside our reasonable control.
According to those terms, Trump Mobile would refund a customer's preorder deposit if the company does not end up selling the device the customer paid for. Therefore, if Trump Mobile had actually told its customers it would withhold their preorder deposits it could be in breach of its own terms.
Trump Mobile states in its preorder deposit terms that the company is under no obligation to actually produce the products it collected the money for. In a section titled "No Guarantee of Release, Delivery or Timing," the website says:
Trump Mobile does not guarantee that: the Device will be commercially released; regulatory approvals (including FCC authorization) will be obtained; carrier certification will be secured; production will commence or continue; or delivery will occur within any specific timeframe.
T1 phone dogged by delays
The T1 phone has faced extended delays since Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. announced it in June 2025. The president's sons are both executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization, which licensed the use of the Trump name for Trump Mobile. The brothers first said the T1 phone would release in August 2025. According to The Verge, Trump Mobile's website first advertised a launch date of September 2025, followed by a more vague deadline of later that year.
An archived version of the T1 phone page from June 26, 2025, shows the Trump Mobile website listed "later this year" as the release date for the T1. The website does not feature a release date for the product as of this writing.
After Trump Mobile failed to release the T1 in 2025, a company representative reportedly told USA Today the phone would release in the first quarter of 2026. That planned release also failed to materialize.
In part because of extended delays, some technology publications speculated that the T1 could be "vaporware," meaning a product that is announced but never released. However, according to The Verge's Dominic Preston, who has closely monitored the T1 since Trump Mobile announced it, the company had at least one (almost) final version of the phone in its possession in February 2026 and aimed to finish various certifications for it by the end of March 2026.
According to a Federal Communications Commission document The Verge found, the agency certified a smartphone with the brand name "T1" in early 2026 after testing it in late 2025. The company that applied for the certification is reportedly owned by Eric Thomas, one of the executives who runs Trump Mobile, and Preston believed the certified product to be the T1 phone.
He reported that the FCC certification suggests that Trump Mobile is "at least attempting to manufacture and launch some sort of phone."
It is unclear what has caused the repeated delays to the T1 phone's launch. Trump Mobile executives reportedly blamed a U.S. government shutdown and a decision to change some specifications on the phone, while at least one expert and technology journalist speculated that Trump Mobile had run into problems honoring its initial promise that the phone would be "Made in the USA," a manufacturing standard the Federal Trade Commission regulates.
Trump Mobile does not market the T1 as "Made in the USA" as of this writing. According to The Associated Press, the company's website quietly dropped this phrase by the end of June 2025, around 10 days after it first announced the phone.
As Trump Mobile stated on May 13, 2026, it planned to start shipping T1 phones that week. That day, the company's CEO Pat O'Brien reportedly told Reuters the phones would be "assembled in the U.S." and that the company "ultimately aims to release a phone with most components made domestically."
In sum, as of this writing, customers could expect to begin receiving T1 phones shortly after May 13. If Trump Mobile suddenly decided not to sell the phone, it appeared customers would still be able to recover their deposits, per the company's terms.