U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday blamed AT&T for technical problems during a conference call with American faith leaders.
Trump posted on his social media platform that AT&T’s equipment failed to work properly during the call, marking the second time such problems had happened.
Donald Trump blamed AT&T for technical problems during a conference call
Highlights
- Trump blamed AT&T for technical issues disrupting a conference call with thousands of faith leaders.
- AT&T said the problem was with the conference call platform, not their network, and worked to resolve the delay.
- Trump threatened to switch providers and asked AT&T's CEO to personally intervene in the tech issues.
- The tech glitch caused AT&T's shares to dip temporarily, coinciding with Trump's recent launch of Trump Mobile.
- The delayed call was the first in a series with religious leaders, discussing tax breaks, peace deals, and pardons.
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
“I'm doing a major Conference Call with Faith Leaders from all over the Country, and AT&T is totally unable to make their equipment work properly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social about the call Monday afternoon.
He asked the “boss” of AT&T to get involved, saying: “If the Boss of AT&T, whoever that may be, could get involved — It would be good. There are tens of thousands of people on the line!”
John Stankey is the chairman and CEO of AT&T, though Trump did not mention him by name.
The president said the call might need to be rescheduled and that future calls might use a different service provider.
“We may have to reschedule the call, but we’ll use another carrier the next time. AT&T obviously doesn’t know what they’re doing!” he said.
According to a White House official who spoke to The Associated Press, AT&T reached out to the White House immediately. The issue was resolved, and the call started 20 minutes late.
Stankey did not respond directly to Trump’s post, but AT&T said the problem came from the conference call platform, not their network.
“Our initial analysis indicates the disruption was caused by an issue with the conference call platform, not our network,” they said on X.
“Unfortunately, this caused the delay, and we are working diligently to better understand the issue so we can prevent disruptions in the future.”
The company said it was working with the White House to understand and assess the situation.
The incident sent AT&T shares down on high volume temporarily before they bounced back.
Trump’s criticism of AT&T comes shortly after the launch of Trump Mobile, his family business’ new wireless service.
The service offers a monthly plan with unlimited calls, texts, and data for $47,45, and a gold-colored smartphone called the T1 Phone, priced at $499.
Trump Mobile uses the networks of the three major U.S. wireless carriers, including AT&T, but is run by Liberty Mobile Wireless, a smaller provider.
“Working with all three major carriers, Trump Mobile is on the nation’s largest 5G network, so customers will have a strong signal, coast to coast,” the Trump Organization stated in mid-June.
The Trump Organization says Trump Mobile aims to provide “top-tier connectivity” and “all-American service.”
However, the financial details of the licensing deal between Trump’s family business and wireless service Liberty Mobile, which uses his name, have not been made public.
Trump recently launched Trump Mobile, which is run by a relatively small network provider
Image credits: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
Details about where the T1 Phone will be manufactured remain unclear. The phone features “Make America Great Again” branding and is marketed as a lower-cost alternative to high-priced smartphones.
This is not the first time Trump has criticized AT&T. Back in 2019, when AT&T owned CNN, Trump made calls for a boycott of AT&T to force “big changes” at CNN over its coverage of him.
“I believe that if people stopped using or subscribing to @ATT, they would be forced to make big changes at @CNN, which is dying in the ratings anyway. It is so unfair with such bad, Fake News!” Trump had written on X.
Back in the present, The Associated Press’ source reported that the call Trump was delayed from holding was not on his publicly released schedule.
It was allegedly the first of a series that the White House expects to regularly hold with religious leaders. Between 8,000 and 10,000 leaders of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths were attending the call.
During the call, Trump spoke for approximately 15 minutes. He discussed key aspects of his major tax breaks and spending cuts bill, including an increase to the child tax credit, the Israel-Iran ceasefire, peace agreements he helped broker in Africa, and the pardons he granted to anti-abortion activists.