The place’s the Trump Cellphone? We’re going to maintain speaking about it each week, besides subsequent week, after we take a break till the brand new yr. We’ve reached out, as ordinary, to ask concerning the Trump Cellphone’s whereabouts. As ordinary, we’re nonetheless ready for a response. Within the meantime, we’re questioning who’s really behind the cell firm.
Yesterday’s announcement that one of many Trump firms is merging with TAE Applied sciences raised an surprising prospect: Is the corporate that gave up on constructing telephones within the US about to attempt making a nuclear fusion energy plant as an alternative?
The easy reply isn’t any. The longer reply is that we don’t really know who’s behind Trump Cell — nevertheless it doesn’t come from Trump Media & Know-how Group, the wing of the Trump empire that’s out of the blue actually into fusion energy.
Trump Cell was introduced in June by The Trump Group, with splashy quotes and media appearances from Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., each govt vice presidents within the firm.
The Trump Group is run by the Trump kids, however owned by the US president by way of a belief, and it homes myriad extra privately owned Trump subsidiaries. Trump Media isn’t amongst these — it’s a publicly traded firm, based when Trump left workplace as a car for the Fact Social community. Trump beforehand owned a majority stake within the firm, although that too is now in a belief — managed by Don Jr., who’s additionally on the Trump Media board of administrators.
So Trump Media does social networks and nuclear fusion, whereas The Trump Group is making the Trump cellphone, proper? Not fairly. It might have introduced the Trump cellphone, nevertheless it did so “alongside the staff from Trump Cell,” in line with the corporate’s press launch, suggesting a level of separation. The small print on the finish hammers the purpose house additional:
Trump Cell, its services and products are usually not designed, developed, manufactured, distributed or offered by The Trump Group or any of their respective associates or principals. T1 Cell LLC makes use of the “Trump” identify and trademark pursuant to the phrases of a restricted license settlement which can be terminated or revoked in line with its phrases.
So we’ve got Trump Cell, and now T1 Cell LLC, neither of that are seemingly a part of The Trump Group. Trump Cell’s web site has its personal small print, which says a lot the identical:
TRUMPSM and all related designs are emblems of DTTM Operations LLC. TrumpSM Cell, its services and products are usually not designed, developed, manufactured, distributed or offered by The TrumpSM Group or any of their respective associates or principals. T1 Cell LLC makes use of the TRUMPSM identify and trademark pursuant to the phrases of a restricted license settlement which can be terminated or revoked in line with its phrases.
However now there’s one other firm within the combine: DTTM Operations LLC. That is a part of The Trump Group and is just the corporate Trump makes use of for registering emblems. It was DTTM Operations that utilized for the emblems for “T1” and “Trump” within the cell area and owns related Trump emblems for sneakers, fragrance, spring water, and extra.
There’s nonetheless extra we don’t know than we do about Trump Cell’s possession
So The Trump Group owns the Trump Cell emblems, by way of DTTM Operations. And it licenses these emblems to T1 Cell LLC, the corporate that truly operates Trump Cell. So who’s behind T1 Cell LLC?
Registered in Florida in April, state information solely give an deal with in Palm Seashore. There you’ll discover an workplace constructing that homes a neighborhood financial institution, an air duct cleansing firm, and a urologist — plus the workplaces of Stuart Kaplan, the legal professional who’s listed because the registered agent of T1 Cell.
Kaplan hasn’t saved his involvement with Trump Cell on the down-low. He helped announce the cell firm in June, posting on X that he had “partnered with Eric and Don Jr. Trump,” earlier than repeating the acquainted line — since rescinded — that the telephones can be manufactured within the US.
Kaplan additionally runs a danger administration firm, Kaplan & Sconzo, providing danger evaluation, investigation, and personal safety providers. Kaplan claims to have been an FBI particular agent from 1995 to 2006, a truth he often leverages in appearances on native and nationwide information, together with CNN, CBS, and Fox. Simply this week he appeared on Fox Information to debate the investigation into the Brown College capturing and over the previous 12 months has appeared on TV to debate Nationwide Guard deployments, Charlie Kirk’s demise, and Kash Patel’s efficiency as head of the FBI, with years of appearances earlier than that.
He’s been completely happy to speak Trump too. Kaplan spoke to CNN in 2022 concerning the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, to CBS a yr later concerning the arraignment, and has repeatedly popped up within the information to debate different facets of the president’s authorized state of affairs, all the time introduced as a former FBI agent and protection legal professional. So far as I can inform Kaplan hasn’t popped up within the media to debate Trump particularly because the paperwork for T1 Cell LLC was filed on April 25, 2025, however did seem on Florida station WPTV to debate Trump’s prices as just lately as final December, complaining concerning the FBI being weaponized to “do the soiled work” of Trump’s adversaries.
There’s nonetheless extra we don’t know than we do about Trump Cell’s possession. We don’t know what Kaplan’s position in T1 Cell LLC is, past being the lawyer who registered the corporate, nor when his relationship with the Trumps started. We don’t know who owns T1 Cell LLC, or who runs the corporate. We don’t understand how intently linked the Trump sons or The Trump Group are with day-to-day operations, aside from a small print suggestion that they’re doing not more than licensing the Trump identify.
However at the very least we all know, as finest as we will inform, that the individuals who’ve repeatedly did not launch a smartphone on time aren’t the identical ones tasked with constructing the world’s first business nuclear fusion reactor subsequent yr.
None of Trump Cell, The Trump Group, nor Stuart Kaplan replied to my newest request for remark.
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