Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and 10 other Democratic members of Congress today urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Trump Mobile’s broken promises related to Trump phone delivery dates and claims that it is “made in the USA.”
The request isn’t likely to get very far. Trump declared early in his second term that independent agencies like the FTC may no longer operate independently from the White House, and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson has backed Trump’s claim of authority over historically independent agencies. The Supreme Court appears likely to approve Trump’s firing of an FTC Democrat, giving him expanded power over the agency.
The letter, led by Warren and other lawmakers, was sent to Ferguson. “We write today regarding questions about false advertising and deceptive practices by Trump Mobile, and to seek information on how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) intends to address any potential violations of consumer protection law given the inherent conflicts of interest presented by the company’s relationship to President Donald Trump,” the letter said.
The letter asked the FTC to “commit to treating Trump Mobile according to the same standards and enforcement priorities applied to other companies engaged in similar conduct.”
Warren and fellow lawmakers previously wrote to Ferguson and other regulators in August 2025 about Trump Mobile allowing Trump “to profit off of his presidency” while appointing the regulators that oversee the mobile marketplace. The August letter asked specific questions, but the FTC did not respond to the lawmakers, today’s letter said.
“Critical test” of FTC independence
“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 new letter said, requesting a response to another round of questions by February 15.
The letter asked how many complaints the FTC has received about Trump Mobile and what the FTC would do “if the President were to intervene and seek to influence your agency’s decisions related to Trump Mobile.” We contacted the FTC and Trump Mobile today about Warren’s letter and will update this article if either provides a response.
In June 2025, the Trump Organization announced plans for a gold phone that would be “proudly designed and built in the United States” and available by August. After a week, the Trump Mobile website dropped its claim of building the phone entirely in America.
The actual phone still hasn’t been delivered despite the Trump company charging for preorders over the past six months. A check of the Trump Mobile website today showed it’s still letting people make preorders for $100 but says the “deposit is fully refundable at any time prior to the shipment of the phone.” The phone’s full price, if it ever ships, is supposed to be $499.
People navigating through the Trump Mobile ordering system are told, “You’ll only be charged $100 today. When we release the T1 Phone later this year, you’ll be the first to receive it!” The website text was written last year and not updated to reflect that the phone wasn’t delivered in 2025.
Not really “made in the USA”
Today’s letter, led by Warren, was also signed by Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Representatives Greg Casar (D-Texas), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). The letter said:
Trump Mobile initially advertised the T1 phone as “made in the USA” on its website. These claims were quietly removed from the website in late June 2025, days after the phone was announced. To claim that a product is “Made in USA,” marketers must meet a very specific set of FTC standards, violations of which come with civil penalties. Experts have pointed out the impracticality of creating smartphones in the United States given the lack of appropriate manufacturing infrastructure. Since its grandiose announcement, Trump Mobile has replaced its language with vague phrases like “American-Proud Design,” “Proudly American,” and “brought to life right here in the USA.”
Trump Mobile’s first promotional images of the T1 depicted what looked like an iPhone Pro, but Trump Mobile later rolled out a new set of promotional images that appeared to be renders of a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, the letter said.
“Trump Mobile began accepting $100 deposits from consumers as early as August 2025 but has failed to deliver any T1 phones to consumers… Instead, Trump Mobile has consistently pushed back its delivery date, originally promising August 2025 and subsequently postponing to November and then the beginning of December. As of January 2026, no phone has been delivered,” the letter said.
Trump Mobile customer service reps “provided contradictory and irrelevant explanations for delays, including blaming a government shutdown that had no apparent connection to the product’s manufacturing or delivery,” the letter continued. With the Trump phone still missing in action, “Trump Mobile has been selling refurbished iPhones, which are largely manufactured in China, and Samsung devices, which are manufactured by a Korean company, while claiming these products are ‘brought to life right here in the USA.’”
Trump phone coming in Q1, allegedly
After Trump Mobile failed to deliver the phone in 2025, USA Today asked for a new projected delivery date. “A Trump Mobile customer service representative told USA Today that the phone is to be released ‘the first quarter of this year’ and that it is completing the final stages of regulatory testing for the cellular device,” USA Today reported on Tuesday.
The Warren letter said Trump Mobile’s made-in-the-USA claims “are potentially misleading characterizations for devices that are manufactured overseas,” and that failing to meet promised delivery dates after collecting $100 deposits may be “a deceptive or unfair business practice.” The letter urged Ferguson to have the FTC carry out “its statutory obligation to enforce consumer protection laws.”
The letter pointed out that the FTC has previously acted against companies that acted similarly to Trump Mobile. “The FTC is responsible for ensuring that companies like Trump Mobile do not make false or misleading claims when marketing products… The FTC has previously taken action against companies for false ‘Made in the USA’ claims, misleading representations about product features and origins, bait-and-switch tactics involving deposits for products never delivered, and failure to honor promised delivery dates,” the letter said.
The letter asked Ferguson to state whether the FTC has opened an investigation into Trump Mobile and, if not, to “explain the legal and factual basis for declining to investigate these apparent violations.”
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