The Trump Organization has unveiled its own mobile service and a $499 smartphone named Trump Mobile, aiming to attract conservative consumers with an alternative wireless service to major telecom providers.

This new mobile venture will feature call centers in the United States and phones manufactured in America, according to the organization.

While the Trump family is renowned for its real estate holdings, luxury hotels, and golf resorts, they have recently expanded into digital media and cryptocurrency.

Following Trump's inauguration, control of the Trump Organization was transferred to his children, similar to the arrangement during his first term, although concerns about conflicts of interest persist.

COMMENTS:

• GIL LURIA, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, D.A. DAVIDSON & CO, PORTLAND: "The new wireless plan and handset announcement is the latest attempt by the Trump organization to capitalize on the President’s popularity, much like Truth Social, the DJT stock listing and crypto endeavors."
• LAWRENCE LESSIG, LAW PROFESSOR, HARVARD: "No one who has been paying attention could miss that President Trump considers the presidency a vehicle to grow his family's wealth. Maybe this example will help more come to see this undeniable truth."
• PAOLO PESCATORE, TMT ANALYST, PP FORESIGHT: "This latest move raises more questions than answers. As always the devil is in the detail given that it is unclear around the actual commercial relationship with the telecom players and so forth. Inevitably as seen to date, we should expect to see backlash from a slew of stakeholders. All parties will be keeping a close eye on how this evolves."
• BRIAN MULBERRY, CLIENT PORTFOLIO MANAGER, ZACKS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT: "Its pointed at Apple, that's a really big downward price pressure on what Apple's trying to do. There's been kind of an opening for this type of device, if you will, simply because not just Apple, but Samsung devices to a certain extent as well, have really gotten so expensive in the moment in time and we haven't really seen that big of a measurable increase in utility. Most of the apps that you can download on a smartphone are just like super search kind of functions, if you will. So having that same functionality at half the price, there's a market out there for that. I think it's going to get probably some extra attention just because it has Trump's name on it but I think the marketplace has been ripe for this type of competition. Competition is always good for consumers and that benefits markets in general. It's going to drive people to be more productive and compete more for consumers' dollars."
• DAVID WAGNER, HEAD OF EQUITIES, APTUS CAPITAL ADVISORS, CINCINNATI, OHIO: "I don't see much impact from Trump mobile across the industry, as half of it's addressable market is negated by political parties, and then from there, this industry already has a lot of stickiness to current providers. These companies need scale to work, and we'll see if the company can execute on the most important thing - consistency of network."

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