Dominic Preston is a news editor with over a decade of experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.

Where is the Trump phone? Coverage will continue weekly. Preordered units have not arrived yet, but this week brought unexpected news from Trump Mobile's media relations manager.

Regular readers of this coverage know Trump Mobile rarely maintains open contact with journalists. That pattern seems set to continue, now that the company has ended its relationship with its longtime media relations firm.

Poplar Group represented Trump Mobile since at least last June. Founding partner Chris Walker then told USA Today that T1 phones were proudly being made in America, a statement the company has since walked back.

Walker has spoken with The Verge several times and offered to speed delivery of two ordered T1 Phones, though those devices remain undelivered. This week he stated his team is not assisting Trump Mobile any further and did not know if the company had hired a replacement PR firm.

Now that the phone has launched, the company may believe it no longer needs to engage with the press. The scale of that launch is still unclear: only a handful of media outlets have received units, and just a couple of apparent buyers have posted on Truth Social and X. For more details, see the full recap of the phone's first year.

Have inside information on Trump Mobile or the T1 Phone? Contact tips@theverge.com securely from a personal device.

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Dominic Preston