President Donald Trump threatened Apple with a tariff of at least 25 % if IPHONE devices are not made in the United States, which increased the pressure on the technology giant to secure more local production.
“I have long told Apple Tim Cook that I expect their iPhone to be sold that will be sold in the United States of America to be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anywhere else,” Trump said in a post on the social truth on Friday. “If not, then a tariff should be paid at least 25 percent by Apple to the United States.”
Futures of shares in the United States decreased to their lowest levels on Trump’s declaration and threatening to impose a 50 percent tariff on goods from the European Union starting from June 1. NASDAQ 100 decreased, while Apple shares fell to four percent in pre -market trading.
The President’s demands in the United States are a flagrant challenge to the company, which is concentrated by the supply chains of its popular phones in China for years. The United States lacks the rich ecosystem of Apple suppliers, industrial knowledge and engineering that-at the present time-can only be found in Asia.
Apple, which became a repeated goal Trump, did not immediately request a comment on the president’s threat. Earlier this month, the company warned that it would face $ 900 million (about 7,674 rupees) at higher costs of customs tariffs in the current quarter.
Last week, during his trip to the Middle East, Trump said he had asked the CEO of Apple Tim Cook to stop the construction of plants in India to manufacture devices for the United States, prompting the iPhone maker to add local production while its axis away from China.
“I faced a small problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “It builds all over India. I don’t want you to build in India.”
Apple said earlier this year that it plans to spend $ 500 billion (about 42,63,505 rupees) in the United States over the next four years, which will include work on a new server manufacturing facility in Houston, and the Academy of suppliers in Michigan and additional spending with its current suppliers in the country.
But this stops the full transformation of the US -based production by Trump. The distinctive iPhone manufacturing and other devices to the United States will be a tremendous task for Cubino, based in California.
The largest FATP facilities in Apple-short for final assembly, testing and packing-huge and incomprehensible to many people outside Asia. It is a city almost, with several hundred people, schools, gyms, medical facilities and overseeing. One of the main iPhone factory, a complex in Zhengzhou, until it is called iPhone City.
The development of new iPhone and other products begins in Apple Laborators in Silicon Valley. But working with suppliers based on Asia and other partners starts a long time before the product is already hitting the market. Apple engineers and operations experts spend months or years working closely with the Foxconn Technology Group, PEGATRON CORP and other suppliers to customize the assembly of new devices.
One of the common resistance is that Apple should use a cash treasure to buy thousands of acres in the United States and create a fully automated iPhone manufacturing facility. This would remove any human related challenges from the manufacturing process, but the supply chain experts say this is not realistic because of the changing requests repeatedly. Also, a lot of manufacturing equipment is made in China.
The pressure on Apple ascends in recent weeks to change the first president’s mandate, when Cook has benefited from a personal relationship with Trump to win a tariff on Apple products. For Wall Street investors, it indicates the uncertainty surrounding the influence of Trump’s trade policy on one of the most valuable companies in the world.
“It is for me that Trump continues to produce Apple and it seems to have something against them,” said Randy Her, the stock director of the Huntington National Bank. “This does not mean that Trump will do anything more, but you cannot predict what will happen, and this makes me careful.”
Cook was one of many executives in major technology and billionaires who tried Trump’s trial after his electoral victory in November.
Apple CEO has traveled to Estate Mar-A-Lago in Trump, Florida, for a series of private and dinner meetings. He also sat behind the president at the opening in January, along with Elon Musk, Google Sundar Pichai and Meta Mark Zuckerberg and founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos.
© Thompson Reuters 2025
(This story has not been edited by NDTV and is automatically created from a common summary.)
