The place’s the Trump cellphone? We’re going to maintain speaking about it each week. This week, we clarify how the presidential cellphone firm connects to an older firm that’s actually working the present.
We’ve lengthy recognized that Trump Cellular was linked to Liberty Cellular, a provider that’s traded for years utilizing freedom-themed branding to promote low cost cellular plans to a conservative crowd. Seems, the 2 companies are even nearer to 1 one other than it had initially appeared. And as we anticipate the launch of the Trump cellphone — doubtlessly as quickly as subsequent month, having been delayed from August — it’s price understanding who’s truly behind the machine, whatever the title that shall be emblazoned on its again.
“Liberty Cellular is umbilically related to Trump [Mobile],” Don Hendrickson tells me. And he would know: Hendrickson is without doubt one of the three Trump Cellular executives, alongside Eric Thomas and Pat O’Brien, who’ve been the semi-public faces of the corporate. And the identical three males simply occur to be the homeowners of Liberty Cellular, too.
The Trump Cellular phrases of use say that it’s “powered by Liberty Cellular Wi-fi LLC,” however that seems to be underselling the connection. Throughout the identical interview wherein the executives confirmed me what they declare is a near-final model of the Trump cellphone itself, Thomas calls Liberty Cellular the “enabler” for the Trump community, whereas Hendrickson calls it the “spine.” To listen to Hendrickson describe it additional, it’s clear that Liberty Cellular handles not solely all of Trump Cellular’s technical again finish and relationships with the bigger carriers, but in addition lots of its authorized and monetary obligations.
“Liberty Cellular is the corporate that’s registered with all of the states, that clears all of the taxes, pays all the completely different E911 charges, the common service tax, the various things that every one of many states require,” Hendrickson says. “Liberty has the engineering employees, the groups that work with the carriers, the algorithms that work with giving the very best optimization of utilization to the top customers.”
It looks like with out Liberty Cellular, there can be no Trump Cellular. However what is Liberty Cellular?
It’s an MVNO — or cellular digital community operator — that means it’s a small provider that pays a bigger provider for unused community capability, permitting it to run a community with minimal overhead.
Most MVNOs goal cheaper price factors or area of interest audiences. Liberty Cellular is concentrated on the latter, with freedom-themed branding designed to attract in conservatives, leaning on a Liberty Bell emblem in purple, white, and blue.
It’s not the one Liberty within the trade. Liberty Cellular is to not be confused with the separate, and now defunct, MVNO Liberty Wi-fi; the telecoms infrastructure group Liberty International; or the varied Liberty carriers that function beneath the Liberty Latin America group.
Its messaging is much less overtly political than Trump Cellular’s, and it’s open to focusing on different audiences too. I reported final week that Liberty Cellular beforehand ran Canelo Cellular, an MVNO co-branded between Liberty Cellular and the Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez, and marketed particularly towards Mexican People.
As for its service, Liberty Cellular’s plans are cheaper than the only $47.45 Trump plan, starting from $17 to $40 per 30 days. They embody free worldwide calling, however apparently not the opposite perks discovered within the dearer Trump choice, like roadside help, machine cowl, and telehealth.
Its on-line presence is minimal, with no social media accounts I might discover. Its web site nonetheless lists a copyright date of 2025 within the footer, and seems both outdated or incomplete in different respects too. The “telephones” web page is solely clean; the weblog features a single, 62-word entry on the Reasonably priced Connectivity Program with an image of then-VP-elect JD Vance; and the FAQ consists of nothing however lorem ipsum placeholder textual content.
However who’s behind it? Right here, issues are much more opaque. Once I ask, Thomas tells me that he and Hendrickson, alongside O’Brien, each personal Liberty and are “the core of” the corporate.
At first, that appears to bear out. In summer time 2024, when Trump Cellular was however a glimmer of their eyes, O’Brien appeared on the podcast The Boon of Wi-fi and confirmed that his firm — Ensurety Ventures — had acquired Liberty Cellular earlier that 12 months. Ensurety doesn’t listing Liberty Cellular amongst its manufacturers on its web site, however does listing Drive America and Omega. These occur to be the identical corporations that present roadside help and machine safety to Trump Cellular prospects.
However once I ask Hendrickson and Thomas if Ensurety owns Liberty, they deny it. “No, Ensurety is a 3rd celebration,” Thomas says, in no unsure phrases, whereas Hendrickson merely repeats “No.” I’ve emailed the pair to ask for clarification, however hadn’t obtained a response in time for publication.
Their actual roles are unclear too. I requested immediately for Thomas’ and Hendrickson’s particular job titles, however neither would affirm them over the decision. As a substitute they stated I’d be despatched an “official construction” by e mail. A number of weeks later that also hasn’t arrived, and my follow-up e mail asking for these particulars has not been acknowledged.
Neither O’Brien nor Thomas listing Liberty Cellular or Trump on their LinkedIn profiles — and it’s additionally not talked about on the one LinkedIn web page I can discover that’s a believable match for Hendrickson, although it’s so scant on particulars that I can’t make sure. O’Brien is listed because the president of Ensurety, although, a job he’s apparently held since 2001. Thomas lists himself as a founder and CEO of Vmedical, a medtech firm that’s talked about prominently on the Liberty Cellular homepage beneath the header “Companies we offer,” and described there as a “sister firm.” He’s apparently been there since 2020, 4 years earlier than the supposed Ensurety acquisition.
To confuse issues additional, state enterprise data all listing Matt Lopatin because the founder and CEO of Liberty Cellular, and make no point out of any of the others. Thus far I’ve struggled to search out any detailed data on Lopatin, who hasn’t been publicly linked to Trump Cellular both. The earliest of these data additionally counsel that the corporate was first registered in 2018, however that contradicts what I used to be informed by Hendrickson, who stated it’s “been within the enterprise since 2006.” I can discover no different proof that Liberty Cellular was in operation previous to 2018.
Like so many parts of Trump Cellular, digging into Liberty Cellular brings up extra questions than solutions. Nonetheless, a minimum of one factor concerning the firm isn’t stunning in any respect: its registered deal with. You’ll discover Liberty Cellular in an house complicated at 16001 Collins Avenue in Sunny Isles Seashore, Florida — often known as Trump Towers.
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