D.T. Phone Home!

From fake peepee tests to vaporware, it’s all the Art of the Scam

Nov 25, 2025

On June 16, Eric and Donald Trump, Jr., strode onto a stage at Trump Tower in Manhattan to announce a remarkable “Made in the USA” bright gold smart phone, named - of course - the Trump Phone.

It would be “patriotic, sleek, and stylish,” a smartphone “engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States for customers who expect the best from their mobile carrier.”

The price? Just $499

Trump Mobile promised to provide a new cellular network for the phones for only $47.45 per month, the price a reference to Trump being the 45th and 47th president. The features? “All American” customer service, Telemedicine, roadside assistance, and unlimited texting to 100 countries around the world.

It would be “Premium Performance and Proudly American” delivered by August 2025… a typical Trump branding and licensing deal designed to shield the family from liability.

Eric Trump (far left) and DJT, Jr (far right) with their Trump Phone partners June 16, 2025, Trump Tower, Manhattan

But August came and went. The delivery date was pushed to October. And then to late November.

As I write this, there are still no “Sleek, Golden, Proudly American, Built in the USA Trump Phones” in the hands of customers. The website has been scrubbed of all claims that the phones are made in America. There is no American factory making them, and there is no reveal about where they are manufactured.

Most industry watchers believe that, like many “proudly patriotic” Trump products, they're made in China… if they’re being made at all.

Smell like Trump: 'victory cologne' for sale as president-elect hawks his wares | Donald Trump | The Guardian

From Bibles to bitcoin, sneakers to steaks, watches to trading cards, bogus charities to cheap cologne, the flood of Trump products over the years has brought us a series of scams, flops, collapses, failures, major lawsuits, and government investigations for fraudulent practices.

The flagship product of the multi-level marketing Trump Network, launched in 2009, was the Trump PrivaTest, which claimed to provide “a scientific window into your personal biochemistry” through urine analysis.

Customers used the home test kit to mail in urine samples, then received recommendations for “Custom Essentials” vitamins, allegedly focused on personalized wellness, optimizing health, and preventing disease.

Dr. Pieter Cohen, a Harvard expert on supplements, described the test and the accompanying supplement regimen as “hocus pocus” and a “scam.”

Another Harvard expert, Dr. David Ludwig, demanded an apology after his name was used as an endorsement without his permission.

Experts stated that the tests performed on the urine had nothing to do with a person’s actual health or vitamin deficiencies, and that matching the results to customized supplements was bogus.

Like so many ventures, the Trump Network collapsed in 2012. Customers who purchased the PrivaTest for $139.95 and signed up for $ 69.95-per-month vitamin refills were never refunded or compensated. An estimated 20,000 independent sales representatives worldwide lost tens of thousands of dollars.

This year, the stock of the Trump Media & Technology Group has plummeted.

Its primary products are Truth Social, the President’s social media platform, Truth+, a TV streaming platform, and Truth.Fi, a financial services and FinTech brand offering investment vehicles.

As for Trump Phones, customers seeking refunds have faced confusing, often conflicting policies, ranging from “all sales are final and non-refundable” to a full refund “at any time prior to the shipment of the phone.”

The lack of concrete updates, changing product specifications on the website, and use of photoshopped images have led many tech experts and some consumers to describe the product as “vaporware.”

Vaporware refers to heavily marketed products that are seriously delayed, never delivered, or not even real.