The Trump phone was a no-show at the world’s biggest mobile show

This week Barcelona was taken over by the tech industry as Mobile World Congress descended on the Spanish city. The world’s biggest mobile show, MWC featured product launches from Xiaomi and Honor, colossal booths from Samsung and Motorola, and appearances from major carriers including T-Mobile and AT&T. You know who was missing? Trump Mobile.

After the Trump-themed network missed its chance to appear at CES, the US’s biggest tech trade show, I thought it might be saving itself for an MWC appearance. After all, while CES spans everything from smart homes to super cars, MWC has always had a tighter focus on mobile phones and telecom companies. It’s exactly where a carrier building its own phone might want to appear to build its reputation, maybe show off a phone or two, and foster the sort of relationships with international partners that Trump Mobile executives previously told me they were working on.

But after a few days of sitting through MWC’s press conferences and strolling its exhibition halls, I’ve seen no sign of Trump Mobile. The company isn’t listed as an exhibitor or vendor in the show’s official directory, and neither is the closely associated Liberty Mobile. I kept my eye out, but spotted no sign of the network’s three public-facing executives either.

In fairness, MWC remains primarily a European show, but it’s certainly not exclusively so. Honor devoted most of its booth to promoting the Robot Phone, which it only intends to launch in China, while all of the big three US carriers had booths at the show. And besides, shouldn’t the all-American Trump Mobile relish the excuse for a little flag-waving on foreign soil?

The timing might have been perfect for a Trump Mobile MWC event, given the company claims it’s gearing up to officially relaunch the T1 Phone in the coming weeks, and that it hopes to ship the first devices to buyers as early as this month — many months late from its original August release, during which time the company hasn’t released any official updates at all. With no more evidence of that at MWC, the Trump phone’s grand return remains strictly hypothetical for at least a little while longer.

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