Trump's Gold Phone Draws Ridicule From Reviewer Over Its Unsettling Resemblance to 'Urine Sample' or Scrooge McDuck's Vault

A gold smartphone sold under Donald Trump's name drew instant mockery after a senior technology journalist compared its colour to a urine sample during a live television review.

Patrick Holland, a Managing Editor at CNET, appeared on CNN with anchor Brianna Keilar on 26 May 2026 to share his assessment of the Trump Mobile T1, a £370 ($499) gold-plated Android device that arrived nine months behind schedule.

Holland described the phone's gold finish as inconsistent across different lighting conditions, comparing it at various points to Scrooge McDuck's coin vault from DuckTales, a jar of mustard, and a medical specimen. The remarks spread rapidly across social media and compounded a year of controversy that has followed the device since its announcement in June 2025.

Gold in Every Light Except the Right One

Holland told Keilar the T1 bore no resemblance to its original promotional renders, which many observers had noted looked like an altered iPhone 16 Pro.

In his CNN appearance, he described the colour variation: 'The gold color, in real life, it kind of varies depending on what lighting you're in. Sometimes it looks like those gold coins that Scrooge McDuck would jump into for DuckTales. Other times it's got a mustard vibe to it and yet other times it kind of looks like a urine sample.' CNET's own published review of the T1 described the colour as 'ornate, bordering on gaudy.'

Holland was careful to clarify that the look of the phone was not his primary reason for declining to recommend it. His deeper reservations concerned what Trump Mobile has declined to disclose about the device's technical make-up.

The clip circulated widely on social media within hours of the broadcast, drawing tens of thousands of views.

Nine Months Late and Stripped of Its 'Made in the USA' Label

The T1 was announced at Trump Tower in June 2025 by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, billed as a 'Made in the USA' smartphone to be delivered by August of that year. NBC News placed a £74 ($100) refundable deposit on the phone in August 2025 and called Trump Mobile's customer support line twelve times over the following months, receiving a different delivery estimate at nearly every turn. An operator cited the government shutdown as the cause of one delay, though no government shutdown during that period would have applied to a private-sector company.

Physical units began reaching select media outlets in the third week of May 2026. By that point, the 'Made in the USA' language had been removed from Trump Mobile's website, replaced by phrases such as 'Designed with American values in mind' and 'Proudly Assembled in the USA.' Both NBC News and The Verge identified the T1 as bearing a strong physical resemblance to the HTC U24 Pro, a device produced by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC and originally released in June 2024. Shahram Mokhtari, an engineer at tech repair firm iFixit, told NBC News the T1 'looks physically very similar' to the HTC U24 Pro and that this 'matches with what we've been told so far.'

Trump Mobile spokesperson Chris Walker disputed the characterisation in a statement to USA Today, insisting that 'T1 phones are proudly being made in America' and describing contrary speculation as 'simply inaccurate.' NBC News reported that the flag printed on the phone's rear carried eleven stripes rather than the thirteen featured on the United States flag, and that Trump Mobile did not respond to questions about the design or the percentage of domestically produced components.

The Technical Gaps Holland Refused to Overlook

Beyond the colour commentary, Holland's practical objections to the T1 were specific. 'We don't know what the processor is in the phone,' he told Keilar on CNN. 'We don't know what the software and security updates will be.' He pointed to Samsung and Google's seven-year software update commitments as the industry standard, noting that buyers of an ordinary Android flagship would know their device was supported through at least 2033. Trump Mobile has not publicly disclosed the T1's processor.

The phone ships with Truth Social pre-installed and runs Android 15. It is tied to a wireless plan priced at £35 ($47.45) per month, a figure Trump Mobile has described as a promotional price. The plan price is widely understood as a nod to Trump's designation as the 45th and 47th president. In January 2026, a group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to the Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation into the venture for potential consumer protection violations tied to its original 'Made in the USA' advertising. The FTC has not publicly confirmed any action.

The White House declined to confirm to NBC News whether President Trump is personally using the device.

A flagship built on national identity, the Trump Mobile T1 has so far struggled to answer the most basic questions any buyer would ask of a smartphone.