TL;DR
- Trump Mobile’s origins trace back to Liberty Mobile, which previously launched a celebrity-branded carrier called Canelo Mobile.
- Canelo Mobile, fronted by boxing star Canelo Álvarez, launched in 2020 but appears to have quietly faded out in recent years.
- Executives say Trump Mobile is primarily focused on selling wireless plans, with the T1 Phone positioned as a tool to attract subscribers.
We’ve all spent months watching the Trump Phone saga unfold, from shifting specs to delayed timelines to, most recently, a glimpse of what appears to be a near-final device. Now we’re learning something new about where the whole idea came from. We’d say it’s not what you’d expect, but then, who knows what to expect with this device?
A new report from The Verge reveals that neither the T1 phone nor the Trump Mobile brand began as a Trump family brainwave. Instead, the idea traces back to Liberty Mobile, the MVNO run by Don Hendrickson, Eric Thomas, and Pat O’Brien. Before pitching the concept to the Trump Organization, the same team launched a celebrity-branded carrier built around boxing superstar Saul Alvarez, better known as Canelo.
