Democrats are dismayed that the latest business venture for President Donald Trump’s family could once again raise conflict of interest concerns since it could be regulated by agencies controlled by his administration.
The Trump Organization announced this week it would be offering 5G wireless service, called Trump Mobile, plus a gold phone.
“It’s just more of the same corruption and self-dealing,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said. “He was hawking Trump tennis shoes and even Trump Bibles. His personal economy is doing well, even if the rest of the country is suffering.”
Congressional Democrats, who are basically powerless to do anything about Trump family dealings right now, were unsurprised by the move.
“This president will continue to try to sell anything that he’s able to,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said.
Luján, who’s the top Democrat on the Senate’s telecom subcommittee in the Commerce Committee, noted the Federal Communications Commission regulates the sector.
The FCC is an independent agency, but Chair Brendan Carr has aligned himself closely with the president’s agenda.
“Chairman Carr has been demonstrating that he’s willing to do anything that Trump asks him, as opposed to operating as an independent agency,” Luján said.
While the FCC doesn’t necessarily need to weigh in on Trump Mobile right now, the agency will regulate the service, its competitors and any partners. The Trump Organization suggested its mobile offering would be licensing service from the major carriers’ networks.
The Trumps also say the phone their company will offer will be “a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance and proudly designed and built in the United States.” The president’s tariffs are hitting phones manufactured abroad especially hard.
We also asked Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) what he thought about Trump Mobile. The Texas Republican said he wasn’t familiar with the details.
