Apple is building most of its devices in China. The company has been doing so for decades due to cheaper labor costs, supply chain infrastructure, and manufacturing expertise that’s unmatched in any other country in the world. When the Trump administration recently imposed massive tariffs on China, Apple’s reaction was to shift some of the production to India — a process that was already underway when the tariffs happened.
But Donald Trump is having none of that. Speaking to the media on Thursday, the U.S. president expressed his dissatisfaction with Apple’s decision to move iPhone production to India.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, ‘You’re my friend, I’ve treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India,'” Trump said.
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Read it in Trump’s voice for added effect: “I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim look, we’ve treated you really good, we put up with all the plants that you built in China for years, now you got build us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves (…) we want you to build here,'” Trump said.
With an offer like that, how can Cook refuse? Well, he’ll probably have to, given that it’s impractical, extremely expensive, and currently near-impossible to build the iPhone in the U.S. at the volumes that Apple requires.
Trump did say that Apple will be upping its production in the U.S., but offered no details.
Apple has previously said it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, which includes a new factory in Houston, Texas, where it will manufacture servers.
