Video Phones Could Land Donald Trump in Trouble

Donald Trump is facing trial on January 29 for allegedly duping people into investing in a loss-making video phone.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan, New York, in 2018, alleges Trump received millions of dollars in secret payments “to promote and endorse” ACN, a marketing company promoting a new type of video phone.

Video phones, popularized in the 2000s, were replaced by smartphones with the video chat feature. Skype introduced video calling in 2006 and Apple popularized video chat with a front-facing camera installed in its iPhone in 2010.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump promoted the product on the TV show Celebrity Apprentice without disclosing that ACN was paying him.

The current Republican frontrunner for 2024 allegedly said at the time that ACN’s video phones were doing “half-a-billion dollars’ worth of sales a year.”

“Trump also told investors that he had ‘experienced the opportunity’ and ‘done a lot of research,’ and that his endorsement was ‘not for any money.’ Not a word of this was true,” the lawsuit states.

Trump has already been deposed in the case, which is among a large line of criminal and civil trials the former president is facing in 2024.

“Trump told prospective investors that “[y]ou have a great opportunity before you at ACN without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take,” according to the 161-page complaint filed in 2018.

The lawsuit alleges Trump received secret payments for inviting two of the founders of ACN into Celebrity Apprentice, the reality show that Trump hosted.

In 2018, ACN began marketing a video phone that was “essentially a desktop, wired telephone with a video screen and webcam in addition to the usual handset and keypad,” according to the lawsuit. It was only compatible with other ACN phones and subscriptions.

“Trump repeatedly praised ACN’s ‘great product’—its ‘new ACN Video Phone.’ But ACN’s video phone was anything but great—the product was doomed almost from the outset,” the plaintiff’s complaint states.