AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) dealt with a public call-out from President Donald Trump and his press secretary due to a long wait time for the Faith Leaders Conference Call.
"AT&T is totally unable to make their equipment work properly," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "This is the second time it's happened. If the Boss of AT&T, whoever that may be, could get involved – it would be good."
Trump went on to apologize to the people who were experiencing the long wait, saying there were thousands on the line.
"AT&T ought to get its act together,” the 79-year-old president said, adding that there’s a chance the call could be rescheduled with a different phone carrier. "AT&T obviously doesn't know what they're doing!"
The telecommunications giant claims it reached out to the White House to assess the situation. Afterward, it denied responsibility for the glitch and offered up a blame game of its own.
"Our initial analysis indicates the disruption was caused by an issue with the conference call platform, not our network. Unfortunately, this caused the delay, and we are working diligently to better understand the issue," AT&T said in a reply to Leavitt.
Read Also: AT&T Adds 324 Thousand Postpaid Subscribers In Q1, Outpaces Verizon’s 289 Thousand Loss
Why It's Important: The public spat between AT&T and Trump underscores the political pressures facing major companies and brands. His call to use a different carrier might not immediately hurt AT&T's financials, or get people to switch services. However, it comes in an era of Trump publicly calling out companies and could go a long way in hurting the company's name among Trump’s ardent supporters.
His criticism of AT&T also comes ahead of a planned launch of Trump Mobile, a startup that seeks to compete with phone carriers.
Trump Mobile will come with several plans, including "The 47 Plan," which costs $47.45 per month, a nod to Trump's time as the 45th and 47th President of the United States.
A gold version of the T1 phone will come with a price of $499, or consumers can use their existing phones.
Promises that Trump Mobile products would be "made in America" have been toned down with the wording recently removed from the company's website.
Terms of Use for Trump Mobile say the network is “powered by Liberty Mobile,” a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) using the T-Mobile network from T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS).
Price Action: AT&T stock trades at $28.84 on Tuesday, hitting a new 52-week high of $29.19 earlier in the intraday session. AT&T stock is up 26.3% year-to-date in 2025.
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