The recent launch of Trump Mobile, which sees the Trump Organisation licensing its brand for what’s ostensibly a themed mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) offering a single unlimited prepaid plan for $47.45/month, arrived ten years to the day after Donald Trump announced his first US presidential campaign.
The timing is important, as many aspects of the service feel more commemorative than competitive at rollout, including the price point for the MVNO’s lone service offering and the prospective gold-hued mobile device.
Calling the details ‘murky’ is an understatement
Thanks to a multitude of vagaries in the rollout materials provided by the Trump Organisation – which is the family business of US President Donald Trump fronted by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump – there are still more questions than answers about many aspects of this new MVNO.
For starters, the identity of Trump Mobile’s MVNO partner remains unclear. While Trump Mobile makes indirect references to working with “all three major cellular carriers” – immediately bringing to mind US heavyweights AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon – no carrier has confirmed this.
Meanwhile, Trump Mobile’s terms of use list ‘Liberty Mobile LLC’ (a T-Mobile MVNO) as the underlying provider, using copy lifted from Liberty Mobile’s own terms of use. Further complicating matters, although there was initially a coverage map on the site at launch that appeared to come from Ultra Mobile (a T-Mobile property), this was pulled within a few hours of its rollout since the map mentioned the Gulf of Mexico, a long-established geographic nomenclature which is currently verboten within Trump circles.
Moreover, this isn’t the only place where the Trump Mobile team played fast and loose with its verbiage. Another example would be the launch language surrounding the T1’s manufacture; that device will not in fact be made in the US, as the early press materials promise. Compounding the confusion, there’s no shortage of misidentified specs on the Trump Mobile site. As a result, the launch feels like an unprofessional muddle, out of tune with a hypercompetitive US wireless service space.
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By GlobalDataRadio silence from Trump Mobile rivals
So far, potential prepaid rivals have been silent, with most taking a wait-and-see tack.
This is wise for at least two reasons. First, the traditional carriers are on a disadvantageous footing, given that the patriarch of the family licensing its brand also happens to appoint every regulatory head that oversees these carriers’ business. They’ve all got pending deals that need government stamps of approval, and they’d all rather like to avoid a pillorying in the Truth Social echo chamber.
On top of that slice of unsavory truth, there’s the conundrum of how one positions against something like this. Any consumer shelling out $47.45 for an unlimited line from Trump Mobile — a completely unproven service outfit — is making a ‘cult of personality’ purchase decision given that here are far better deals, an abundance of value-add, and more cost certainty to be had with proven shops.
Consequently, subscribing to Trump Mobile is buying into the overarching grievance narrative Trump is selling; that’s a personal identifier proposition extending beyond mobile service, basic cost considerations, or any add-on bells and whistles here.
Countering that aggressively could be akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite their face. After all, becoming a target for the Trump team’s social media gripes could fuel switchers among those potential cult-of-personality purchasers.
Underscore existing strengths to buttress against a niche threat
It’s easy to make fun of the goofy gold phone. It’s also easy to conjure examples of Trump Organisation licensing endeavours that went sideways. (Trump University springs to mind.) The conflict-of-interest issues are glaring.
However; writing off the Trump team’s ability to sell to its target cohort could prove a misstep, even if countering directly would be a worse move. At the same time, US carriers also shouldn’t ignore this threat; the Trump circle’s ability to convince folks to dismiss their own best interests – whether in pique or in loyalty – is considerable.
Consequently, most potential rival operators will play up aspects of their portfolios that offer a counterstroke, particularly items already in their wheelhouse: better prices, mature plan and device lineups, on-shore aspects of their customer care organisations, existing roadside assistance and telehealth value-add options, and more. Otherwise, the existing US wireless heavyweights will likely tread lightly until they figure out what’s real and what’s not.
