Trump Believes Apple Could Manufacture iPhones in the U.S.

[bmustaf]

The cost of a domestic iPhone is far more than the tariff. Now, tariffs along with long-term (e.g. not just one year or even one administration, but decades long) in infrastructure, facilities, education (read: labor), and incentives for companies to establish those long-term investments, yes, we could bring the cost down. But tariffs do nothing except take money out of your and mine's pocket until we have had those things in place for decades. Unfortunately, we've basically, over the last few decades (and this is a non-partisan statement) we have not prioritized any of those things in a meaningful way.

It's like saying "well, I was approved for a loan on a tractor, so I will have an award winning vineyard next week!"....

 

[BKDad]

That's the thing about all this. It's not a completely ridiculous concept that the iPhone be made in America. If actual moves had been made to do that under the Obama administration, it could be done or at least significant by now.

I don't know if this is the way to do it, but I sure would like to see someone actually make a real move in that direction beyond the peripherals.

America's lack of advanced manufacturing has implications beyond just the iPhone.

Yeah, but here's the thing...

Capital is pretty portable. Companies and investors can build and operate factories wherever they want to, within whatever constraints the local governments and economic conditions allow. American companies chose to offshore manufacturing back before Y2K because there were a lot of incentives for them to do so. Some even provided by the US government.

Now, a lot of the skills used to build and operate factories here have either retired with their owners, moved offshore, or are pretty much obsolete. In any case, it takes time and actual desire and resolve to catch up again. It can't happen overnight.

Besides, who would support most of what it would take? Taxpayers? Kids who don't want to work in factories? Investors who want returns NOW? We've never been known to play the long game in the US, while other countries have either because of their culture or because they had no other choice.

It's a hard problem to solve. But, generally, I think if there ever was popular demand for any of this we might've seen movement over the past almost three decades. But, we haven't, have we? These days, there's a lot of demand to tear down institutions of higher education and even local schools. Where will the new workers come from?

My kid graduated from a nerd school about a decade ago. Nerd school is her term - it's a science and engineering school. While there, she read an article that one of her friends from high school sent her. It was about a poll taken of recent high school grads and why they chose the school and major they did. The number one reason why the kids polled didn't want to go to a nerd school was... "It's too hard!" From what I read this week, a lot of grad students are looking to transfer to schools in Canada, Europe, and even Asia because they feel their prospects for finishing their degrees and finding a job have crashed in the last month.

 

[JosephAW]

Assemble Yes

 

[Beck446]

If all the expertise is in China, then how did Apple build such large production capacity in India? And if it can be done in India, why can't it be done in the US?

The comments about tech manufacturing jobs fall into two inconsistent camps. One is that the jobs are menial, like screwing in thousands of screws all day. The others say either that automation will destroy all jobs or that the jobs are too complex for the US. Highly automated factories create great jobs. We're probably talking thousands of jobs, not hundreds of thousands, but these are good jobs overseeing highly automated state-of-the-art production. There are also significant national security benefits to having this technology inside the US.

 

[seek3r]

Somebody’s kidney anyway.

Bender, is that you?

/hopefully you watch Futurama

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

Hands up who wants to do a 12 hour shift at the new USA iPhone factory.

 

[tmmacops]

Ya, Tim Apple will make eve in the U.S., and the cost to the consumer will be $9,000 iPhone. Unless there’s a mandate that every iPhone will have a backdoor for Russia to access.

 

[brofkand]

Since when was manufacturing jobs “high paying”?

How much do UAW workers get paid to build American automobiles?

 

[DocMultimedia]

I've always wanted to grow up and solder iPhones

Nothing better than that odor. Lol

I soldered hundreds of connections a day for a massive detector at Fermilab ages ago. Will never forget how I smelled at the end of the day.

 

[jblank]

Let me introduce you to a novel concept: It is 100% possible to believe both are incompetent.

The thing that boggles my mind even more than half the population electing Trump, is that the other half can’t find a single competent human being to put up against him.

But facts are facts. No matter how incompetent Biden was, he did not throw a handgrenade into the US economy like Trump just did.

Look at what Trump ran against. Had the Democrats not jumped with both feet HARD to the left and tried to out woke each other every day since 2012, they likely would have won easily. The electorate, across all races in America, rebuked open borders, rebuked identity politics, and wanted economic changes that created more growth and opportunities. They weren’t wrong in making that choice because more leftism (I’ll just roll all the above into that) isn’t something the masses outside of blue cities have any stomach for. If the Dems were smart, they’d run back to a Clintonian view of government and run away from Bernie and AOC who have zero appeal to independents and will push voters away again. The woke and socialist left is just as deranged and out of touch as the fundamentalist social conservative right is. Neither is helpful.

Now, all that said, if these asinine tariffs stay in place for a long time and we see a global collapse in economies OR we see a redoubling of inflation, then you will see leftist economic populism take off in popularity and it’s gonna be bad news for the GOP in ‘26 and ‘28.

 

[Velli]

If all the expertise is in China, then how did Apple build such large production capacity in India? And if it can be done in India, why can't it be done in the US?

The comments about tech manufacturing jobs fall into two inconsistent camps. One is that the jobs are menial, like screwing in thousands of screws all day. The others say either that automation will destroy all jobs or that the jobs are too complex for the US. Highly automated factories create great jobs. We're probably talking thousands of jobs, not hundreds of thousands, but these are good jobs overseeing highly automated state-of-the-art production. There are also significant national security benefits to having this technology inside the US.

Pacific ocean is big. There are longer distances between two Apple factories inside China, than between China and India.

But, there is a point to it. It’s not impossible. But, Apple(‘s suppliers) did not build a factory in India overnight. At the very least, it will take time. And enough Americans willing to work at China/India rates, or at least close to it.

I don’t think the two job descriptions are inconsistent though. Both types are needed.

But none of this explains why we need to create all these jobs in a country that doesn’t have an unemployment issue. We are discussing the practical feasibility of a senseless policy.

 

[DavidSchaub]

I mean sure. Apple could manufacture iPhones in the US... in 10 to 20 years.

 

[maxoakland]

Apple could manufacture the iPhone in America but Americans couldn't afford that phone because CEOs and billionaires get most of the money and American wages are very low

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Adenoid Hynkel wannabe

Nice shout out 👏

 

[BKDad]

Assume for a minute that a super modern mechanized factory built somewhere in the US was able assemble iPhones for pennies. The only costs being the overhead of the building and the maintenance of the machines.

Aside from that not providing many jobs, it doesn't address the real issue - the cost of the components. *They* aren't made in the US, either. Oops.

 

[miq]

Just wait until it hurts the pockets of his puppets

Israel?

 

[Velli]

How much do UAW workers get paid to build American automobiles?

According to Google, 28$ an hour.

 

[brofkand]

According to Google, 28$ an hour.

Yeah I mean that ain't chicken scratch.

 

[vantelimus]

Yet all of Trump's MAGA merchandise is made in China. This is all a scam to get companies and countries to kiss his ring.

For Trump, it is about personal power and glory. However, his tariff program is part of the larger Project 2025. So there is more to this than Trump’s narcissism. The architects of Project 2025 are struggling against China’s rise to global prominence, prosperity, and influence and America’s falling position. They believe that since the US led the world into this new era of globalization, America should remain on top. But, that’s not the way free-trade (nor any history really) works. So, just as the world struggled during the first round of globalization with rivals like Britain and France vexed by Germany’s prosperity and eventually leading us to WWI, we now have the second round of globalization with the US challenged by China’s success leading us into trade wars and eventually WWIII.

 

[CapitalIdea]

The king might declare a national emergency to cancel midterms. Getting more likely with every passing day. Assuming we even survive for two years.

Before Trump I would have considered it absurd, but look at what Texas is doing after a democratic congressman died. Meanwhile the last Texas vacancy for a Republican who died was set for two weeks later.

 

[julesme]

So you’re just going to ignore the “next to” part, that you yourself highlighted?

No - I don’t believe it would be “next to impossible” either. It would be expensive and time-consuming (obviously on the order of many years). Just because something takes many years does not make it “next to impossible,” certainly not when we’re talking about a company with Apple’s resources.

 

[Xand&Roby]

Currently it seems that the United States will receive its Indian manufacturing products.

I can't forget my experience with Indian Apple products: 7 iPhone SE replaced under warranty for two years, the last one on the day of expiration.

All strictly defective.

Everyone, no one excluded.

 

[Velli]

Look at what Trump ran against. Had the Democrats not jumped with both feet HARD to the left and tried to out woke each other every day since 2012, they likely would have won easily. The electorate, across all races in America, rebuked open borders, rebuked identity politics, and wanted economic changes that created more growth and opportunities. They weren’t wrong in making that choice because more leftism (I’ll just roll all the above into that) isn’t something the masses outside of blue cities have any stomach for. If the Dems were smart, they’d run back to a Clintonian view of government and run away from Bernie and AOC who have zero appeal to independents and will push voters away again. The woke and socialist left is just as deranged and out of touch as the fundamentalist social conservative right is. Neither is helpful.

Now, all that said, if these asinine tariffs stay in place for a long time and we see a global collapse in economies OR we see a redoubling of inflation, then you will see leftist economic populism take off in popularity and it’s gonna be bad news for the GOP in ‘26 and ‘28.

I agree with all of that. The best thing for the US would be for the population to recognise that the two party system is broken because they have each moved too far away from each other. A third party in the middle is needed, and the further apart the current parties get, the more viable an in between party is (I don’t know enough about American political systems to know if this is even legally possible, or if only independent candidates are possible?)

But yes, I expect GOP to have a hard crash. The only question is if they will take the whole country with it.

Look at history. All the big empires - Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Ottoman, British - they all fall at one point (just like Nokia…). Even though at one point they were so powerful you couldn’t imagine a different world. I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of the American “empire”. After Trump, there will be a new world order. And I don’t think Americans will like the result.

 

[canadianreader]

cnn has a good video on this topic today:

At 1:10 mark he says "It's gonna come to America, it's going to be automated" Are these journalists deaf ??

 

[jblank]

Hands up who wants to do a 12 hour shift at the new USA iPhone factory.

The answer is NOBODY and that's why this stupid, 1952-era line of thinking has to stop. Americans are not going to go back to riveting and soldering jobs and besides, those are done robotically. The problem is Trump trusts two idiots on economic matters, Lutnick and Navarro, both of whom think tariffs are some path to prosperity and are gonna bring back manufacturing here. Neither of which seems to understand markets or supply chains though and they believe in autarky. As a free-market Sowell-ite, it infuriates me to sit there and listen to them defend these policies, they might as well be union bosses in the 50's and 60's, the way they talk.