AT&T Rejects Blame Over Trump's Conference Call Glitch, Claims Something Else Is at Fault

AT&T is fighting back after US President Donald Trump condemned the telecom corporation for a failed conference call with religious leaders. The company claims its network was not to blame.

Rather, AT&T is blaming an unnamed third-party conference call tool that seems to have been responsible for the glitch.

Trump Criticizes AT&T Over Call Failure

AT&T Rejects Blame Over Trump’s Conference Call Glitch

Donald Trump took to his social media site, Truth Social, to express his indignation after a "big conference call with religious leaders across the nation" allegedly disintegrated during a call.

Trump stated on Monday that the call had "tens of thousands of individuals on the call" and was interrupted by what he assumed were AT&T technical issues. He labeled the telecom firm "totally unable to make their equipment work properly" and called for the attention of the "Boss of AT&T."

The 79-year-old businessman also said this was the second time such an issue had occurred, implying a pattern of unreliability and adding, "We'll use another carrier next time."

AT&T Responds, Cites External Conference Platform

In return, AT&T first reacted in perplexity regarding the incident, responding in public to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on X (formerly Twitter) and clarifying that it had contacted the White House to comprehend and evaluate the issue.

Later during the evening, at 6:53 PM ET, AT&T released a statement:

"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 so we can prevent disruptions in the future."

The company did not name the third-party platform at fault and refused to comment further when contacted by The Verge. The White House has been quiet on the issue thus far as well.

Conference Platform Unnamed

Without identifying the platform responsible for the outage, AT&T's announcement leaves much to speculation. It also calls into question the overall reliability of large-scale conference call systems, particularly when political leaders and large crowds are involved.

Though the platforms usually run smoothly, even minor hiccups can generate public outcry, particularly if high-profile individuals are involved.