Tech Expert Compares Trump Phone to ‘Urine Sample’ In Savage Review for CNN

CNET managing editor Patrick Holland compared the color of President Donald Trump’s namesake smartphones to that of a “urine sample” in a CNN hit on the long-delayed devices.

The golden-hued handset has been plagued by delays and bad press since it was announced in June of last year for release in August of 2025. Bu finally, some of the phones have begun to trickle out to the public and members of the media.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s OutFront, guest anchor Brianna Keilar welcomed one of those lucky recipients to review the phone after a less-than-flattering intro. Holland likened the phone’s color to the sea of cartoon coins swum by Scrooge McDuck and a “urine sample,” depending on the light:

CNN ANCHOR BRIANNA KEILAR: The $500 gold-colored Trump mobile phone is finally landing in some people’s hands nearly a year after it was announced and nine months later than it was originally set to launch.

But the phone is not living up to its initial promise. The screen is smaller than what was originally advertised. And though initially touted as being made in America, it is now being promoted as, quote, “Designed with American values in mind.”.

Here with me now is Patrick Holland, the managing editor of CNET. He’s one of just a few people who’s gotten his hands on the Trump phone.

Patrick, you’ve looked at a lot of phones in your work and you spent a whole day using this one before giving it to a colleague for further testing.

What were your immediate impressions of it? Would you recommend it?

CNET MANAGING EDITOR PATRICK HOLLAND: Yeah, I think first, it looks nothing like the original image that we saw about a year ago, which kind of looked like an altered iPhone 16 Pro.

Next, 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 looks like a urine sample.

But my hesitation is– I would not recommend it. Not because of that, but largely because we just don’t know certain things about it.

We don’t what the processor is in the phone. We don’t what the software and security updates will be. For example, companies like Samsung or Google will commit to seven years. So if you buy a phone, you’ll know that you have till 2033 to use that phone.

And that makes me wonder if the last big worry is if this phone will actually ship. Well, a couple of us in the media do have it.

I can’t find many cases of actual customers who put their money down to order the phone.

CNN ANCHOR BRIANNA KEILAR: That’s really interesting. The phone was initially advertised as being made in the U.S. and then the company said, as I mentioned, that it was designed with American values in mind.

That’s a really different thing. And you point out that the phone, the box, the manual, the packaging, it doesn’t say anything about where it was made. Could you find that anywhere?

CNET MANAGING EDITOR PATRICK HOLLAND: Well, on the box, the outside the box, it said assembled in the USA. Now you could interpret that with a regular phone to mean that it was put together in the country that’s listed.

They could be being a little literal here and it could be that they put the phone in the box and that the box was assembled in USA.

But we were curious about this phone, so we always run benchmark tests on all the phones we review at CNET.

And we discovered that the performance of the processor and the graphics card is very similar to a Taiwanese phone called the HTC U24 Pro 5G, rolls off the tongue there.

And this phone, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the phone, that’s not a bad phone by any means, but it’s certainly not made in the USA.

Watch above via CNN’s OutFront.

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