Dem
47
GOP
53
It is hard to be sure exactly who the schadenfreude target is in this story. Maybe everyone. In any event, among the innumerable grifts being run by Donald Trump Sr. and his family is their cell phone venture. A little over a year ago, the Trump Organization began running online ads like this one:
Those folks who liked what they saw, and who went through the process of signing up, were charged approximately $60 at the outset (though, in many cases, they later incurred additional charges). They were told the final sale price would be $499. They were promised that they would be notified when their phone shipped, despite the fact that the signup process did not include collecting the person's address. Anyone who called in to ask about the status of their phone, or who called to complain about additional charges, could not get through to customer service. Eventually, the "customer service" number stopped working entirely, and it now rings through to a business called Omega Auto Care.
In short, it was like that song from Mary Poppins: "Scim-scammery, scim-scammery, scim-scameroo..." At least, we think those were the lyrics. And the scammery reached a new level earlier this week when the Trump Organization updated its terms of service to indicate that not only had they blown the delivery date of September 2025 promised in the ad, but that "Estimated ship dates, launch timelines, or anticipated production schedule are non-binding estimates only" and "Trump Mobile does not guarantee that the Device will be commercially released." The website said that people could get their money back, if they did not wish to wait. However, that would still mean that the Trumps sat on that money, and earned a year's worth of interest, for doing nothing. Further, it's not so easy to ask for your money back when there's no way to reach customer service.
The sleazy changes to an already sleazy business proposition triggered a wave of unfriendly coverage, including from some right-wing media outlets. And so, Trump Mobile announced yesterday that phones would start shipping soon. It is interesting that they went from "we're not sure these will ever ship" to "you'll get your phone soon" in 48 hours or so. Anyone who is waiting for their phone would be well advised to keep in mind that these people are inveterate liars, and that Trump Mobile still doesn't have its would-be customers' addresses. Also, "soon" is a pretty fungible term. Compared to the day the sun will burn out, anytime in the next 10,000 years is "soon."
Even if the phones do actually end up in customers' hands, they will STILL be a scam. If you examine the ad above, you will see it promises the phone will be MADE IN THE USA. That is impossible at a $499 price point, especially for a company that has no idea what it's doing. The only cell phone made in the U.S., also by a far-right business concern, costs $2,000, and is considerably inferior to a high-end iPhone or Android phone that costs half as much. What a person is actually going to get, if they get anything, is a Chinese-made phone that normally retails for around $200. Actually, maybe that is why they are now able to ship. Maybe Trump went to China primarily so he could get Xi Jinping to start sending boatloads of crummy phones to the U.S.
Trump and his son, both of them so sleazy that they'll even screw over their most loyal fans, deserve all the reprobation they're getting for their role in this situation, which is about 75% scam and 25% gross incompetence. Meanwhile, the Trumps have shown over and over and over again that they are grifters willing to separate suckers from their money, and that any product they produce is high in price, low in quality, and made in China. So, the folks who fell for scam #728 kind of deserve some reprobation, too. (Z)