Donald Trump's long-delayed Trump Mobile smartphone has finally begun landing in customers' hands in the US, only to be met with ridicule, technical scepticism and a viral put-down from a CNN tech expert who claims the device 'looks like a urine sample.'
The news came after Trump, 79, and his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, first unveiled Trump Mobile in 2025, urging supporters to put down deposits for what was billed as a patriotic, premium handset.
Those early buyers then faced months of silence and growing anger as the phones failed to appear. A nine‑month delay, confusion over where the device was actually made, and a design row over a misprinted US flag had already tainted the launch before anyone could seriously test how the thing worked.
By the time CNN'sOutFrontdevoted a segment to the phone, it was less a tech rollout and more a political Rorschach test. Host Brianna Keilar set up the critique bluntly, saying the Trump Mobile was 'not living up to its initial promise,' with a smaller screen than advertised and a quiet retreat from claims it was 'made in America.'
The new marketing line, she noted, was softer and more nebulous: 'Designed with American values in mind.'
Patrick Holland who reviewed the new Trump phone describes the color as: Sometimes it looks like those gold coins that Scrooge McDuck would jump in… and yet other times it kind of looks like a urine sample.pic.twitter.com/haI73ydajy
Trump Mobile was always going to lean hard into symbolism. The branding is heavy on gold, flags and the familiar Trump aesthetic of gleaming opulence. On paper, that made sense. In practice, the finish appears to have backfired.
Tech journalist Patrick Holland, brought on as CNN's guest reviewer after he received one of the phones, said the device barely resembled the slick imagery used to sell it to supporters last year.
'It looks nothing like the original image that we saw about a year ago, which kind of looked like an altered iPhone 16 Pro,' Holland told Keilar.
Then he turned to the colour. On camera, he sounded almost bemused, as if trying to be fair but unable to ignore what was staring back at him.
Source: International Business Times UK
