Months after the Trump Mobile organization planned to release a $500 gold device supposedly built in the US, the T1 Phone is still not available. And reports suggest the wait will continue.

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At the end of last year, a customer support representative for Trump Mobile reportedly said that we shouldn't expect the phone to be released in December, and that the US government shutdown delayed the phone's delivery. That's according to a Financial Times report. A representative for Trump Mobile did not respond to a request for comment. 

As of Jan. 22, the phone's webpage still lists it as being released "later this year" -- the same thing it said last year.

The saga began when Trump Mobile launched in June with a $47.45 a month mobile phone plan, claiming that it would launch a smartphone made in the US by August 2025. When presented with overwhelming evidence that manufacturing a smartphone entirely in the US at a large scale is virtually impossible, Trump Mobile walked back those claims.

Currently, Trump Mobile is still accepting $100 deposits for the T1 Phone, which it calls "Proudly American," with features including a 6.25-inch AMOLED screen, a 120Hz refresh rate, 256GB of storage with a card slot for expansion and a 50-megapixel camera. 

The Trump Mobile website now also offers refurbished rival phones from Apple and Samsung, including a $629 iPhone 15 and a $459 Samsung Galaxy S24.