White House insists iPhones will be US-made - but Apple calls it a non-starter [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Wed 9 Apr 2025 12.07 EDT
Last modified on Wed 9 Apr 2025 21.30 EDT


The White House is insisting that Donald Trump’s vision of Apple’s flagship iPhones being manufactured in the US will come to fruition, despite assertions from analysts and the company itself that it would not be possible.

The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters during Tuesday’s briefing that the president believed Apple’s recently announced $500bn investment, as well as increasing import costs sparked by his trade tariffs, would encourage the company to ramp up manufacturing in the US.

“He believes we have the labor, we have the workforce, we have the resources to do it. If Apple didn’t think the US could do it, they probably wouldn’t have put up that big chunk of change,” she said. Trump doubled down on the claim on Wednesday, posting to his Truth Social network that: “This is a great time to move your company into the US, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing. “Zero tariffs, and almost immediate electrical/energy hook ups and approvals. No environmental delays.”

The problem, according to experts, including Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, and his predecessor, the late Steve Jobs, is that the US does not have the workforce of other nations where the vast majority of its electronics are currently manufactured, such as China, which makes about 85% of iPhones, India and Vietnam.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/trump-apple-iphones-made-in-usa