Public relations firm Poplar Group has officially severed ties with Trump Mobile, confirming Wednesday that its staff had exhausted all known linguistic methods for stringing along reporters regarding the unreleased T1 phone.
The communications agency, which has represented the smartphone venture since last June, formally stepped down from the account following a grueling six-month campaign of telling journalists they would have an update shortly. Representatives for the firm noted that they had successfully deployed every professional variation of "finalizing production" and "optimizing the supply chain," leaving them with no further utility to the brand.
The T1 phone, heavily marketed to supporters of President Donald Trump as an alternative to mainstream tech companies, has remained entirely conceptual since its initial preorder launch. Poplar Group had previously issued a single statement to USA Today regarding the device, a project that reportedly required three senior executives to carefully draft a paragraph that legally avoided acknowledging whether the smartphone existed in the physical realm.
Our strategic analysis indicated that by early next week, we would be forced to invent entirely new phonetic sounds to explain why a piece of consumer hardware still cannot be perceived by the five human senses.
Former agency employees indicated that the daily toll of fielding press inquiries about a device no staff member has ever seen or held eventually led to widespread burnout. Several junior publicists reportedly required medical leave after trying to draft a press release for a holiday shipping deadline that possessed no corresponding physical goods to ship.
Consumers who placed $799 pre-orders for the T1 device have increasingly turned to social media to ask when their hardware will arrive. Without Poplar Group to issue calm, multi-syllabic deflections, these customers will now receive their absolute lack of information directly from the manufacturer.
Following the agency's departure, Trump Mobile is expected to streamline its media strategy by bringing its total communications blackout entirely in-house. Reached for comment regarding the missing phones, a generic Trump Mobile customer support address immediately returned an automated message stating the inbox was full.