Trump Mobile is just one in the crowd of conservative carriers | The Verge
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Trump Mobile is just one in the crowd of conservative carriers
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Where’s the Trump phone? We’re going to keep talking about it every week. This week, I wanted to see how Trump Mobile stacks up to its conservative carrier competition.
Trump Mobile isn’t unique. I mean, it is in some pretty specific senses — it’s not every day the president’s family launches a phone company while he’s in office — but it’s far from the first company to offer a mobile carrier targeted at the conservative crowd.
In fact, there’s a rich history of smaller networks trying to make their money from patriots, Christians, and Republican voters. Like Trump Mobile, they’re all MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), carriers that don’t own their own network infrastructure, but instead lease capacity from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. And the key to any successful MVNO is to find your niche.
While the big carriers try to be all things to everybody, MVNOs are usually more focused. Some target veterans, seniors, or kids. Some prioritize customers on a budget, others those who want unlimited data but don’t care much for calls. Puppy Wireless was simply marketed toward anyone who likes cute pups — I’m not sure it’s even still operational, but it did outlast sister company Kitty Wireless, which shut off service in 2016. Score one for dog people, I guess.
At the risk of stating the obvious, Trump Mobile targets Trump fans. It’s there in the name, in the logo, in the “47 Plan” that nods at Trump’s term as the 47th president. But it also leans into a vague sense of patriotism: It may no longer claim the T1 Phone is made in the USA, but it still calls the network “all-American,” the phone “proudly American,” and insists there are “American hands behind every device” — not even mentioning the American flag emblazoned on the phone’s rear. Believe it or not, that makes Trump Mobile one of the subtler conservative MVNOs around.
But I didn’t just want to know how hard these carriers push to win over the conservative crowd. I also wanted to understand if any of them actually offer value for money, so I’ve compared their cheapest plans to US Mobile’s $25 monthly unlimited offering. Let’s see how much it really costs to pair your phone with these particular politics.
Trump Mobile’s parent company is, like its golden spinoff, fairly restrained.
The name is an obvious nod, as is the Liberty Bell logo and slogan “Let Freedom Ring.” But beyond that, this isn’t really any more openly political than US Mobile. I’m mostly just skeptical about how functional it really is, given the website has a missing Phones page and nothing but lorem ipsum in its FAQ.
Value for money: At
Texas-based Patriot Mobile bills itself as “America’s ONLY Christian conservative wireless provider,” which I’m afraid to say is blatantly untrue. It’s branded with the stars and stripes, and its cheapest plan is named “Freedom of Speech.” (Though, boringly, every other plan is just listed by its data allowance — come on guys, aren’t there any other freedoms you could try and sell me?)
Regrettably, this is only the first of several planned books.
Patriot Mobile sells Charlie Kirk hoodies and phone cases with the thin blue line or Israeli flag graphics, and runs an affiliate marketing scheme specifically for churches. Last month it introduced Patriot Pals, children’s books teaching kids about digital safety with the help of Liberty, a bald eagle with star-spangled wings and a Patriot Mobile logo on its chest. I really wish I was making this up.
The real problem with Patriot Mobile is that it seems to put its money where its mouth is. The company says it “contributes millions of dollars every year to those on the front lines,” by which it means organizations including Turning Point USA, CPAC, and the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, while funding conservative candidates in elections across Texas.
Value for money: At $26 per month, the Freedom of Speech plan costs a dollar more than US Mobile’s unlimited plan but nets you only a single gigabyte of data. Who knew freedom was so expensive?
Radiant hasn’t actually launched yet, but it promises a grand debut on Easter Sunday. It claims to be the “first Christian wireless service in the world,” our second outright lie of the day.
Nothing about Radiant’s marketing is explicitly political — instead it calls itself “a groundbreaking fusion of faith, technology, and entertainment.” It’s partnered with Israeli security company Allot to provide “network-level content filtering” that blocks out pornography, gambling, and “harmful digital influences.”
As for the entertainment part, it offers AI-generated retellings of biblical stories, some for adults, some for kids, some inexplicably narrated by AI Snow White. These appear to be part of a gamified app that promises — as if it’s a good thing — “more screen time.”
AI Snow White Bible bedtime stories, what could be more Christian?
Value for money: Radiant’s cheapest plan is $29.99 per month. It’s unlimited, but only 6GB of the data is “premium,” dropping to 2G speeds after. It also claims to have unlimited talk and text, but then says you only get 200 minutes and 200 texts. Either way, this isn’t a great deal.
Pure Talk sounds innocuous enough, and its website looks that way too. It’s generic, corporate, maybe a bit boring. But there are signs that it’s not quite so.
Scroll down the homepage and you’ll see it’s “family first,” that it believes “in creating jobs for Americans,” that it’s “proudly veteran-led and pro-America.” But they’re yellow flags at worst.
Instead, you should judge Pure Talk by its friends: It’s been repeatedly endorsed by right-wing pundits including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Ben Shapiro. They, and countless other conservative radio and talk show hosts, have run paid promotions describing Pure Talk as an alternative to “woke” mainstream carriers.
“Why do we keep giving our money to woke corporations like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, who care more about selling ‘wokeness’ than wireless?” Shapiro asked in one ad. Pure Talk still hosts a landing page offering discounted prices to Shapiro listeners.
Value for money: Pure Talk’s cheapest plan is
Charity… that sounds good, right? Unless… there was such a thing as a bad charity? That can’t be right. And Charity Mobile lets you decide which charity it donates to, so you’re in control anyway. Oh wait, let me look again. It donates 5 percent of your payment to “the Pro-Life, Pro-Family charity of your choice.” Ah.
In fairness, this isn’t exactly hidden in the small print. Charity Mobile proudly declares itself to be “the Pro-Life phone company,” and it wants to make sure you know it: Land on the homepage and you’ll be met by a screen-filling fetus and told to “choose life.” You can probably guess what the company’s Instagram looks like.
Value for money: $24.95 monthly will net you a sweet 5GB of data, which is beginning to feel like a bargain by this lot’s standards. Just to be clear, though: It’s not.
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Dominic Preston Close Dominic Preston News Editor Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Follow Follow See All by Dominic Preston
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