By Akash Sriram and Aditya Soni
(Reuters) -Hours after the high-profile launch of Trump Mobile, a new Trump-branded mobile service provider, in June, callers to the company’s customer support line were greeted with, “Omega Auto Care, how can I help you?”
Two calls placed by Reuters that day to the mobile service’s helpline rang to the Missouri-based auto-warranty company, which is part of Ensurety Ventures, a St. Louis, Missouri firm led by entrepreneur Pat O’Brien, who was introduced by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on June 16 as a member of the launch team providing “customer support and device protection” for Trump Mobile.
Today, calls to the support line are answered by people who identify themselves as Trump Mobile support staff, but the first-day confusion speaks to the dizzying speed with which the Trump family has scrambled to set up the businesses.
In addition to Trump Mobile, the family has established several ventures since President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in November. These include 12 new overseas development deals, a Trump-branded bible, a crypto trading platform World Liberty Financial – which has netted the president’s family about $500 million since launch – a $TRUMP meme coin, and a stablecoin USD1.
Trump Mobile is what’s known as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, which has grown in popularity in recent years as various celebrities and causes leverage their cultural clout to launch branded wireless ventures.
T-Mobile, for instance, acquired Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile for up to $1.35 billion in May. Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, the actors behind the hit SmartLess podcast, announced SmartLess Mobile in June.
At the launch of Trump Mobile, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. introduced the team, including O’Brien, Don Hendrickson, a telecom executive who will serve as Trump Mobile’s head of mobile operations, and Eric Thomas, a Utah-based entrepreneur entrusted with “device operations,” as having “hundreds of years” of telecom experience between them.
The service, pitched by the Trumps for “hardworking Americans,” will bundle telemedicine services and roadside assistance, along with a gold-toned, $499 smartphone dubbed T1 “designed and built in the United States,” which a spokesperson says will be manufactured at facilities in Alabama, California and Florida.
The company is charging $100 to “get in line” to buy the phone as soon as it ships.
A Reuters review of the backgrounds of the Trump Mobile team reveals an interconnected web of companies owned by the three men that will form the core of the company’s offering to consumers.
The Trump Phone will ship bundled with an array of services provided by companies connected to O’Brien’s Ensurety Ventures, Hendrickson and Thomas, including roadside assistance, device protection, and telehealth services, including “easy ordering” of prescription medications, according to its website.
Reached by phone, O’Brien would not disclose the type of phone that will ship to users but did say it would run on Google’s Android mobile operating system.
“The plan is going to be able to have the phone done by September and launching where we’re fulfilling orders in early October,” O’Brien said.
He added that the brand will initially launch one phone and eventually develop many devices, adding that the T1 has gotten a lot of pre-orders. He did not specify how many.
From the start, telecom industry experts challenged the notion that the phone – or any competitive mobile device – could be built in the U.S. “Domestically manufacturing a smartphone in the USA could easily double its price compared to a similar one made in Asia,” said Ken Hyers, Director of Market Analysis at TechInsights.
Within days of the announcement, Trump Mobile dropped the Made in USA claim from its website. Now, a Trump Mobile spokesperson said the T1 is being manufactured in three states with the goal of sourcing “as many materials and parts from the U.S. as the supply chain allows.”
“We will continue to build on that as more and more parts and equipment are made here in America,” the spokesperson said.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to a request for comment. Thomas did not respond to requests for comment and Hendrickson could not be reached for comment.
VIRTUAL OPERATOR
Rather than building a telecom operation from scratch, Trump Mobile’s wireless service will run on Liberty Mobile’s network, a “virtual” network that leases cellular capacity from major carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, and is co-owned by the three members of the launch team, O’Brien, Thomas and Hendrickson.
The company has not disclosed subscriber numbers, and O’Brien declined to provide them to Reuters.
Incorporated in 2018 and registered to a condo in Trump Tower Miami, Liberty’s service appears to be nascent, offering older smartphone models such as the iPhone 11. Its LinkedIn profile shows it has fewer than 50 employees and its website displays the text “lorem ipsum,” typical placeholder text used to design pages before the content is final.
Liberty’s most recent annual filing in Florida dated February 7, 2025, lists Matthew Lopatin as its CEO and president, an entrepreneur who has founded and owns several businesses in Florida, filings show.
Liberty and Lopatin did not respond to requests for comment.
Hendrickson is listed as executive vice president of sales of Liberty Mobile. His son, Christian Hendrickson, worked at Liberty during the pandemic, according to his LinkedIn profile. Christian Hendrickson did not respond to a request for comment.
BUNDLED SERVICES
Among the services that will be bundled with the phone is VMed Mobile, a company jointly owned by O’Brien, Hendrickson and Thomas that sells portable wellness trackers and telehealth subscriptions, O’Brien said. The company certifies its products through a Shenzhen, China-based subsidiary, according to FCC filings on the company’s website.
O’Brien told Reuters he has been “personally involved” in Liberty Mobile for three years and that Liberty originally reached out to him to provide health tracking services. Liberty’s website lists VMed Mobile as a service.
Telehealth services for Trump Mobile will be provided by Doctegrity, according to its website.
Doctegrity is a Texas-based telehealth subscription platform led by Jesse Ohayon, according to his LinkedIn profile and a YouTube posted months ago.
Ohayon and Doctegrity did not respond to requests for comment.
O’Brien’s Ensurety Ventures controls roadside assistance provider Drive America and device insurance vendor Omega Mobile Care, two other services advertised by Trump Mobile. A separate webpage for the Omega Mobile Care lists three device protection plans for cracked screens between $100 and $300.
Drive America, founded in 1968 and once owned by Ford Motor and Citi Group, serves 12 million customers, according to its website.
Omega Auto Care, the company that picked up the phone on Trump Mobile launch day, provides vehicle service contracts and extended warranties that cover the cost of repairs for a car’s mechanical breakdowns after its factory warranty expires.
“We are providing products through that relationship that people normally have to pay upward of $30 per month or more to receive those benefits,” O’Brien said.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Michael Learmonth)
Comments