14.04.2025
2 min
795
The heavily promoted Trump Mobile T1 Phone underwent a durability test and teardown, revealing that its gold-colored body conceals what is essentially a near-identical copy of the 2024 HTC U24 Pro. To make matters worse, the manufacturer even managed to get the American flag on the back of the smartphone wrong.
Well-known tech YouTuber Zack Nelson, creator of the JerryRigEverything channel, published a video testing the Trump Phone, in which he took a detailed look at the device’s construction. The video has attracted over 2.5 million views and once again raised questions about the originality of the smartphone marketed under Donald Trump’s brand.
During the teardown, Nelson discovered that the Trump Mobile T1 is virtually identical to the HTC U24 Pro, which was released back in 2024. Both smartphones share the same dimensions, display resolution, and 120Hz refresh rate.
The similarities don’t end there. Both devices feature identical 50-megapixel cameras, while their headphone jacks and microSD card slots are positioned in exactly the same places. Further disassembly revealed that the internal layouts also match, with the motherboard, cooling system, and camera modules occupying identical positions.
Essentially, the main difference is the Trump Phone’s gold-colored body and branded design. The YouTuber summed up his findings with a touch of irony:
“If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably just an HTC U24 Pro painted gold.”
Nelson also drew attention to the smartphone’s back panel, which features a stylized American flag. Instead of the traditional 13 stripes representing the original American colonies, the Trump Phone has only 11.
The YouTuber suggested that two of the stripes may have been replaced by the Trump Mobile branding. If that is indeed the case, the use of the national symbol could violate Title 4, Section 8 of the U.S. Code, which sets restrictions on using the American flag for advertising purposes.
The situation is particularly ironic given the manufacturer’s earlier claims about the device’s American origins.
Initially, Trump Mobile advertised the smartphone as a product made in the United States. However, the company later removed those claims from its website, replacing them with the much vaguer phrase “designed with American values in mind.”
That wording alone does not confirm that the phone was actually manufactured or even designed in the United States.
The JerryRigEverything video quickly attracted attention on Reddit. In a discussion about the Trump Phone durability test, commenters joked not only about the device’s construction but also about Donald Trump himself.
One user called it the most entertaining smartphone durability test video they had ever watched. Another joked that Nelson had torn Trump apart even more thoroughly than the phone itself.
Trump Phone Durability Test – Its worse than we thought…
byu/gordolme inAndroid
Nelson’s political commentary, which he included in the technical review, also contributed to the reaction. In particular, the YouTuber stated:
“It turns out that Donald Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files more than 38,000 times. For comparison, that’s more than Harry Potter’s own name appears in all seven books combined.”
This claim was made by the YouTuber in his video and was not a finding of the smartphone’s technical inspection.
Another Reddit user joked that they were surprised the device had even launched, as they had expected it to be completely “corrupt,” playing on the word’s double meaning in English.
The Trump Mobile T1 was announced back in 2025, but the first customers did not receive their devices until May 2026. Even before the smartphone reached the market, its origins and advertised specifications had already raised numerous questions.
The company repeatedly changed the information published about the smartphone, while the device itself had already undergone several independent teardowns. The latest JerryRigEverything video simply added more details to a story that had been surrounded by controversy from the beginning.
Meanwhile, the smartphone has also become significantly more expensive. By September 2026, its price had increased from the original $500 to $750.
As a result, customers are being offered a device whose design and components closely resemble those of the two-year-old HTC U24 Pro, but now under the Trump Mobile brand and with a considerably higher price tag.
