Trump Mobile is not giving up yet

It’s been nine months since Trump Mobile announced itself, seven months since the company has updated any of its social media profiles, and two months since anyone has responded to my emails. Based on this, you might think that everyone involved had given up on the whole idea, but this week we saw strange signs of life: a new brand application.

What’s the strangest thing about Application It is that he was not deposited for anything newBut for “Plan 47”: Trump Mobile’s only cell phone plan, which launched alongside the company itself In June of last year. Like Trump Mobile’s previous trademarks, this application was filed by attorney Michael Santucci on behalf of DTTM Operations LLC, and the listing says it was filed on Monday, April 6. Why this branding wasn’t applied along with the others at launch, for “Trump” and “T1”, is anyone’s guess – I asked, but the company still ignored me.

The phone itself is still nowhere to be seen. Since its launch nine months ago, there have been only two signs that the T1 might be real: a phone discovered by company CEOs Don Hendrickson and Eric Thomas. Show me via video call; and FCC approval as of January. I was told the phone was on track to launch in March, but that apparently didn’t happen.

There’s a lively debate in our comments every week about whether Trump Mobile is still making a meaningful effort to run a smartphone carrier or charger. Filing a trademark does not prove that it does either. But filing a new trademark application, nearly 10 months after the first two, at least indicates that someone, somewhere, still sees value in the project.

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who first discovered the filing, points out that it’s unusual in at least one other way: It’s an explicit reference to Trump’s term as the 47th president. “There has been no other president in the history of the United States who has filed a trademark application that refers to the office of the presidency in connection with a for-profit enterprise.” Gerben writes.

I think this is a first for Trump Mobile. But you know what would impress me even more? Release the dreaded phone.

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