President Donald Trump wants his iPhones made in the U.S. And there may be a steep price to pay if they are not.
Trump threatened a 25% tariff on Apple in his ongoing tariff war with other countries, per a report on CBS News.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump wrote on X Friday. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!”
Trump also threatened to hit the European Union with a 50% tariff because they are “very difficult to deal with.”
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” the president said in another post on X. “Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”
“There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States,” he wrote.
The new tariff is expected to put a dent in Apple’s profits.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said on May 1 that tariffs could cost Apple $900 million in the current quarter.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that Trump’s was “trying to bring back precision manufacturing to the U.S.”
“And I think that one of our greatest vulnerabilities are these … this external production, especially in semiconductors, and a large part of Apple’s components are in semiconductors. So we would like to have Apple help us make the semiconductor supply chain more secure. What I found interesting in Saudi Arabia last week was that the president called out Tim Cook for not being there,” Bessent said.
