this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 7 points 54 minutes ago

A president is allowed to found companies?

Either way, he sure has time on his hands.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 40 minutes ago

It's gonna be labeled as some private cell service but it actually logs everything you do in their servers and use it for some nefarious purpose.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

It's going to be a cheap low-priority MVNO with deceptive wording to make it sound like its own independent network. Absolutely zero chance it'll be competitive in any way.

[–] mercano@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Won’t stop the red hats from buying it out of loyalty to the Emperor.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 27 minutes ago* (last edited 27 minutes ago)

True. Then it'll get absorbed by one of the bigger MVNOs, or one of the main networks' prepaid services, and become a cheap subsidiary or just get dissolved completely. But by that point they'll already be onto the next grift.

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 14 points 3 hours ago

The word “could” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence

[–] Fuzzypyro@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago

The picture I saw of it looks 100% like the standard practice of rebranding a terrible iPhone-like android device that could only be manufactured in China. Just take a look at “luxury” phones of the early 2020s. Absolutely 100% a scam by idiots for idiots.

Mkbhd: Escobar Phone https://youtu.be/O8FJSjy3bXA

[–] rumba@piefed.zip 23 points 4 hours ago

Competitors severely penalized in 3...2...

The great wireless firewall of America.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 52 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

At this point anyone who buys Trump-branded shit get what's coming to them. Dude is the most notorious grifter in history.

[–] tourist@lemmy.world 19 points 4 hours ago

are you saying all my Trumpcoins, Trump NFTs, degrees from Trump university and deep frozen Trump steaks are worthless

[–] Shawdow194@fedia.io 109 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

We've had former presidents sell their family peanut farms to avoid conflicts of interest

The carters felt that relinquishing the business to someone else’s care would separate them from these affairs and avoid the possibility of their financial holdings resembling any conflict of interest while President Carter was in office.

[–] beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 4 hours ago

But Carter had honor.

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 12 points 3 hours ago

Who could forget the op-ed Carter wrote for The Onion.

[–] Paradox@lemdro.id -4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

First term Trump divested of most of his businesses, so this is even a departure for him

Bullshit. He had his kids "run" them. Total farce.

[–] veeesix@lemmy.ca 71 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

With American-made phones and American call centres, right? Right?

[–] HowAbt2day@futurology.today 50 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

“Good morning and thanks for calling MAGA Mobile. Please listen to the options and make your selection for the best possible service. For Spanish, press 423 and wait for a knock on the door. For English, god bless Trump…”

[–] LedgeDrop@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 hours ago

... "For English, say 'God bless Trump' …”

Fixed that for you /s (... I really want off this apocalyptic ride)

[–] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 16 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Why did I read this in an Indian accent?

[–] Darkenfolk@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Because you have a fetish for that very very hot Indian accent? (Indian accent)

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 71 points 7 hours ago

It turns out that maybe having a gentlemen's agreement for how things should work was a bad idea.

[–] thyristor@lemmy.pt 80 points 7 hours ago

I guess it's OK as long as it's not a peanut farm brand.

[–] ToadOfHypnosis@lemm.ee 89 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Compete with but will lease their service because there is no actual competition with a barrier to entry like national cell towers.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

Unless you run the country through executive orders.

[–] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago
[–] mintiefresh@piefed.ca 22 points 6 hours ago

All parts will be manufactured and assembled in the US? Right?

[–] RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world 30 points 6 hours ago

more illegal shit

[–] JHRD1880@lemmy.world 44 points 7 hours ago

They already tried that with the 'Freedom phone' and it was a massive scam, so this is quite on brand for him.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 31 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'm sure it will 'compete' in the same way as all his other failed businesses.

[–] Mirshe@lemmy.world 45 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

See, here's the thing when you're the President. You can just have your FCC chair shut them down. You can actively quash literally any boundaries to being a monopoly, and nobody can do anything about it (from a legal or regulatory standpoint).

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 35 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

If he actually launches a Trump phone service, it’s going to be a MVNO that just piggy backs off the main operators’ infrastructure. It’s not like he or his idiot sons are going to buy spectrum and build towers.

He wouldn’t really be competing with T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T. He’d be competing with Boost Mobile and companies like that.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 8 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Maybe they are planning to take back that spectrum they gave to Boost/Dish on a pinky-promise that they'd actually become a competitive network, during the Sprint and T-Mobile antitrust case.

Which would fit with the FCC's increasingly mob-like behaviour under Trump.

[–] Mirshe@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

You're missing the point. The admin has full control over spectrum licensing. This means Trump could easily have the FCC just revoke all other spectrum licenses for cellphone comms, and just forcibly seize those towers. Don't look at it like it's going to operate like a corporation, because I promise you it won't.

[–] TechnoCat@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Wasn't Starlink experimenting with phone calls? Could be a deal with Elon.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, but I doubt they're close to having the capacity to offer full 5G service like a traditional carrier. I have T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom‘s US subsidiary) and they have a deal with Starlink but it’s (a) in beta and (b) limited in what you can do. Unless things have changed, even when it launches, it’ll be just LTE text and voice and you need a pretty modern phone.

So, it’s not like a drop in replacement for a land-based plan where you get internet and stuff. Plus, Trump and his kids aren’t going to do any of the hard work. Even before his presidency, “Trump” was just a licensing brand and now it’s a pretty shitty brand. It’s not like the family was running Trump Steaks and packing boxes for shipment or whatever.

[–] TechnoCat@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Makes sense.

[–] Mynameisallen@lemmy.zip 11 points 6 hours ago

Lol, yeah this doesn't scream android phone full of spyware at all! It's definitely not going to just be a rebranded Chinese made phone that we assemble in like Louisiana and can say is "American made"

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Could compete how? He gonna buy infrastructure? He gonna be an MVNO? (None of whom are really competitive with the big players because a lot of them are either regional, have to buy batches of data and minutes from the big three, or have pretty bad service). And who's going to buy it? His supporters? I doubt that. This is just another grift.

[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago

I would bet A LOT of money that all of your messages would be viewable by him

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago

I just imagine he has a giant carnival wheel that's marked with all sorts of reprehensible things to do and he just spins it whenever he's bored and proceeds to executive order whatever he lands on

[–] ServeTheBeam@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Sounds like a great way to surveil everyone.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 hours ago

I've got bad news about your phone.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 hours ago

If by "everyone" you mean the people stupid enough to buy a made-in-China Trump phone.

[–] Errorcode7@programming.dev 8 points 6 hours ago

Don’t forget the great Dish Wireless Network!

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

I wonder if he'll use Starlink...

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online -3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Why do Americans feel the need to name state run shit with their own name?

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 9 points 5 hours ago

It's not even state run he's just filling his pockets god damn