The Never-ending Grift
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https://www.fastcompany.com/91352863/trump-mobile-is-here-experts-are-baffled
Trump Mobile would be an MVNO—a mobile virtual network operator—which, at present, doesn’t own any of its own infrastructure. That may be intentional, considering the risks involved. “The puzzle to me is why are they resurrecting this idea from, like, 10 years ago and trying to milk a little bit of extra money out of this,” Dediu says.
MVNOs have minimal presence in the U.S. smartphone market, holding less than a 5% share. The major providers—Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile—dominate, and they will supply the actual infrastructure for Trump phones.
and
Success is far from certain. “I’m struggling to figure out why even the phone would make sense,” Dediu says. While some profit could be made on hardware sales, he notes that branding might allow a $200 device to be sold for $500, though the costs of servicing customers could quickly erode that margin.
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Well the website now says it's no longer "made in the USA", it just says "America-proud design", LOL. I do have a question, do you have to be white trash to buy it or is the phone sort of a ticket to the white trash club?
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/26/trump-phone-website-removes-made-in-the-usa-tag-for-the-device.html
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https://www.fastcompany.com/91352863/trump-mobile-is-here-experts-are-baffled
Trump Mobile would be an MVNO—a mobile virtual network operator—which, at present, doesn’t own any of its own infrastructure. That may be intentional, considering the risks involved. “The puzzle to me is why are they resurrecting this idea from, like, 10 years ago and trying to milk a little bit of extra money out of this,” Dediu says.
MVNOs have minimal presence in the U.S. smartphone market, holding less than a 5% share. The major providers—Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile—dominate, and they will supply the actual infrastructure for Trump phones.
and
Success is far from certain. “I’m struggling to figure out why even the phone would make sense,” Dediu says. While some profit could be made on hardware sales, he notes that branding might allow a $200 device to be sold for $500, though the costs of servicing customers could quickly erode that margin.
@taiwan_girl said in The Never-ending Grift:
“The puzzle to me is why are they resurrecting this idea from, like, 10 years ago and trying to milk a little bit of extra money out of this,” Dediu says.
He answered his own puzzle. Grifters gonna grift. Magat grifters gonna grift magats.
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Since January, President Trump bought over $100 million in bonds, including corporate, state, and municipal bonds.
The filings reveal more than 600 financial purchases since January 21, covering sectors potentially benefiting from US policy shifts.
Trump's annual disclosure showed over $600 million in income from various sources and assets worth at least $1.6 billion.
But
“President Trump’s net worth has increased substantially, with much of that concentrated in crypto holdings and Trump Media. Given that, there is no evidence currently that his bond purchases are anything other than a prudent diversification within his billions of dollars in assets,” said Mr John Canavan, lead US analyst at Oxford Economics.
“It seems like he was primarily purchasing corporate and municipal bonds and others that are high quality and highly rated, so it’s just a way to take a little bit of risk off the table,” he said.
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The NYT tallied up the fortunes amassed by the Trumps since the start of his second term:
The number came up to $1,408,500,000.
