Newsweek - A new smartphone under President Donald Trump's brand, which was unveiled by his eldest sons on Monday, will cost well above its advertised price of $499 if it is indeed manufactured in the U.S., experts have told Newsweek.
"A phone truly made in the U.S. today would likely cost well over $1,000," said Tinglong Dai, a supply chain expert and professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. "Without access to Asia-based manufacturing and scale, the economics simply don't work."
Newsweek has reached out to Trump Mobile, the company behind the phone and new cellular service, for details on where the T1 smartphone will be manufactured.
Trump and his administration have already put a significant political and economic premium on companies manufacturing in the U.S.—this being one of the principal goals of his trade agenda—while threatening companies who refuse to relocate production with punitive tariffs.
Experts have already cast doubt the claim made by the Trump Organization and its representatives that the new T1 smartphone, set for launch in a few weeks, can or will be made in America. They have pointed to the marked disparity in labor costs between the U.S. and China, as well as the latter's heavily developed and specialized industrial ecosystem, tailor-made for the mass assembly of such technologies.
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