Donald Trump promised Americans a “patriotic” alternative to big tech when he unveiled the T1 smartphone in June 2025, however, the product reportedly failed to live up to expectations.
On Wednesday, October 28, Zack Nelson, a popular YouTuber known for gadget teardowns and durability tests, put the $499 handset through its paces.
He also compared it with a Taiwanese model released in 2024, explaining that the president’s offering looked “extremely suspicious.”
“Phone so bad it makes you remember the Epstein Files,” one netizen joked.
A popular tech reviewer tested Trump’s T1 phone and claimed the president misled consumers
Nelson’s review video of the T1 had amassed 9 million views as of this writing.
Right from the start, the reviewer placed the handset alongside the HTC U24 Pro, a phone he already owned.
He pointed out that the two devices matched in overall size, the contours of their angled metal frames, the placement of the power and volume buttons, the notification lights, the USB port, the headphone jack, and the microSD card slot.
The T1’s 6.78-inch curved display also had the same resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate as the 2024 HTC model.
Scratch tests yielded similar results, with the first visible marks appearing at level six on a Mohs hardness pick, a tool used to assess a material’s scratch resistance.
More pronounced grooves emerged at level seven.
Nelson then opened up both handsets, revealing that their interiors were identical too, down to the number and placement of screws, the motherboard, and the battery.
The most striking moment, however, came when the reviewer swapped the motherboards between the two devices.
Both phones booted up immediately, further suggesting that they were built on the same platform and sourced from the same manufacturer.
“As a factory owner myself, this is super frustrating,” Nelson said, adding that Trump’s claims of American manufacturing were “a slap in the face” to those who actually produce goods in the country.
Nelson also questioned the president’s claims of patriotism by highlighting a design flaw in the T1’s American flag.
The flag printed on the phone featured fewer stripes than the actual U.S. flag
The national symbol on T1 had 11 stripes instead of the standard 13, which represent the original colonies that formed the United States.
Pointing out the discrepancy, Nelson sarcastically suggested that the Trump Mobile branding might account for the missing stripes, “one red, one white.”
He then raised another concern about the image, citing Section 8(i) of Title 4 of the U.S. Code, which states that the American flag “should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever.”
#Trump‘s #phone has arrived: a regular plastic #device in a #gold tone that was supposed to have a metal finish. Users are complaining about the cloudy plastic. pic.twitter.com/efUiynFnGU
— Chris | MC 🐂🀄️ (@0xChrisAdaji) July 5, 2026
The U.S. Flag Code, however, primarily provides guidelines for displaying and respecting the banner. A violation does not automatically constitute a criminal offense.
Nelson, meanwhile, did not hold back from calling attention to Trump’s past legal troubles and alleged lies during the video.
Zack Nelson took aim at Trump over democracy, the Epstein Files, and his felony convictions
Nelson’s first personal jab at Trump came while he was explaining why he had taken so long to review the device.
The creator admitted that he had been reluctant to purchase a phone associated with a “34-time felon” because it set off his “scam-o-meter.”
The figure referred to a New York jury finding Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May 2024.
Later, during the scratch test, Nelson noted that the T1 had sustained marks at levels six and seven, quipping that those were among Trump’s favorite numbers.
Another favorite, he claimed, was 38,000, which he cited as the number of times the president’s name appeared in the Epstein files.
The reviewer subsequently broadened his criticism to Trump’s political record, accusing him of making promises without following through. He argued that the president was still complaining about America’s problems after several hundred days in office, despite having promised to fix them on day one.
“We gotta start judging the guy on his actions and not his promises,” Nelson said
