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

[lovehateapple]

Apple could absolutely start manufacturing iphones in the US. There are many reasons why they won't. The two biggest are all the regulations in the US and unions. Not having a skilled labor force and appropriate supply chain are way down on the list and would be quickly (not easily) solved if the government deregulated and more states became right to work.

 

[Audit13]

Wow, Leavitt and Trump sound clueless based on this article. Who the hell said anything about a $500 billion investment to manufacture iPhones?

 

[0049190]

Who keeps plugging him in? Stop it. He doesn’t have wireless charging.

Does Melania plug him every night to recharge? If so she needs to adjust his colour balance settings.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Tim Cook supported fascism by donating $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration. So Apple customers who are Cook supporters and Trump supporters deserve all the financial hardships they receive as a result of Trump's policies.

The inauguration didn't get Trump elected.

 

[Velli]

They could certainly and I would like to see them do so but the biggest problem will be the unions who will try and extort everything they can from Apple. Were already seeing it with those idiots in retail. Get rid of the unions and you'll be fine.

The main issue holding back production of iPhones is not the salary levels, but the scale. The sheer amount of people that need to walk into the factory every morning is why they are literally living at the factory in China. How will you find people willing to do that in the US, now you are deporting all the Mexicans… Unions or not.

Also, not everyone required in the production are “monkeys off the street”. Thousands of engineers are involved, and Apple has previously stated that there is a limitation in the availability of sufficiently skilled engineers. I know many in the west think Chinese “workers” are all about sweat shops and child labour, but there are 300+ million middle class Chinese.

And I haven’t even started with the stupidity of touting Apple’s announcement of investing 500 billion in US factories over the next four years - exactly zero of which will be designed to manufacture iPhones. Even if Apple wanted to, there’s not a snowman’s chance in hell that one iPhone will be manufactured in the US during Trump’s presidency.

It seems like Trump’s cabinet believes that all you have to do is find a few empty hangars and a bunch of people with screwdrivers…

 

[spazzcat]

Apple could absolutely start manufacturing iphones in the US. There are many reasons why they won't. The two biggest are all the regulations in the US and unions. Not having a skilled labor force and appropriate supply chain are way down on the list and would be quickly (not easily) solved if the government deregulated and more states became right to work.

There's also the fact that it cost a few billion to build specialized factories and 5+ years to build them.

 

[0049190]

Apple could absolutely start manufacturing iphones in the US. There are many reasons why they won't. The two biggest are all the regulations in the US and unions. Not having a skilled labor force and appropriate supply chain are way down on the list and would be quickly (not easily) solved if the government deregulated and more states became right to work.

Blame it on the unions. How dare they demand a decent rate of pay and healthcare benefits when the Chinese will work 12 hours a day for a bowl of rice.

 

[snowatom]

Apple could keep the same iPhone price or even lower it if they fully automate the manufacturing process.

Do you really think that their current manufacturing process isn’t already automated as best as possible? Sigh…😔

 

[lovehateapple]

So he slapped China with 104% tariffs to try and force a private company to manufacture in the United States? And I thought the GOP was the party of “small government”…

The GOP hasn't been a party of small government since Eisenhower. Reagan wanted to be, but failed. Trump is the first President since Reagan who is willing to take on the deep state. He tried working with the deep state in his first term, but learned his lesson.

 

[vantelimus]

Ill need to sell my kidney to afford the iPhone 20

I guess you are limited to one upgrade for the rest of your life. Between Trump trying to destroy the iPhone with tariffs and the EU trying to turn it into an Android clone, you might want to hold on to your kidney as long as you can.

 

[lovehateapple]

Blame it on the unions. How dare they demand a decent rate of pay and healthcare benefits when the Chinese will work 12 hours a day for a bowl of rice.

Yeah, I partially blame the unions. I was a forced member of one before they sent my job overseas.

 

[Manzanito]

Trump believes that injecting bleach in your veins is a good idea, so...

Tim Apple must be over the moon.

 

[bluecoast]

I would like to read a serious analysis of why Apple could or could not bring manufacturing to the USA.

Without knowing anything about building consumer electronics...

- Could the automation be improved? I am sure that I read somewhere that a lot could be done here, it's just that Apple goes to countries with lots of unskilled labour and creates lots of jobs, so there's never really been the impetus to do so
- Is it the design of the products - thin! - which makes them so difficult to assemble? I am being serious here! Can/could Apple invest in integrated circuits to cut down on assembly?

I would really be fascinated to know the issues behind assembling an iPhone.

 

[tubular]

Trump is the first President since Reagan who is willing to take on the deep state.

He is in a deep state of ignorance.

 

[Ankaa]

They're spinning up chip fabs as we speak.

I lived next door to one of the proposed mega semiconductor factories until just two weeks ago. The site was chosen over 2.5 years ago in 2022. They were supposed to start digging in 2024. That's been pushed back to maaaaybe november 2025. Expected to be operational by 2029 or 30.

The infrastructure simply doesn't exist to move all the manufacturing to the US and establishing that infrastructure will take years, if not decades.

This is what happens when things are decided by plain reactionism without actually thinking things through. Sometimes it's not a question of whether one should, but whether one could.

 

[klasma]

Apple pays $5 per manufactured iPhone in China. Around $8-$10 in India. There’s no reason that it couldn’t be made for $40 in the USA.

Most of the iPhone parts aren’t shipped to China or India from the US. They are produced outside of the US, and certainly cost more than $10. The raw materials mostly come from outside the US as well. For example, less than 1% of global bauxite mining (from which aluminum is made) is done in the US.

 

[lovehateapple]

And a bankrupt country.

We were already bankrupt way before Trump got into office in 2017. The US has been on an unsustainable economic path for decades. It's a consequence of using fake fiat currency.

 

[Mity]

"Trump Believes..."

LOL. Yah, he believes a lot of things. Let me guess his plan: fire all the federal workers, including scientists and researchers, and put them in Foxconn [ insert American-owned firm here ] run sweatshops with limited bathroom breaks and onsite "dormitories." Otherwise, iPhones are not going to be made in America.

 

[avro707]

Apple could keep the same iPhone price or even lower it if they fully automate the manufacturing process.

That’s the only way, AI robots building the phone entirely.

But hardly any jobs creation other than those supervisors to keep things running and make sure the robots don’t start a war against humanity.

Not sure Trump would appreciate that idea. He tends to jump from one thought bubble to another IMO.

 

[Cervisia]

The Lump has just put a104% tariff on importing the machinery required to build iPhone, from China.

What a farce

Industrial machinery, especially robots is one segment that China still has to steal develop.

 

[mansplains]

That doesn't stop Trump, does it? Good advice but when in Rome...

Nor most MR commenters for that matter…

 

[klasma]

Who keeps plugging him in? Stop it. He doesn’t have wireless charging.

Doesn’t he support MAGsAfe?

 

[rocknrolldoggy]

"Deep state" ROFLMAO

 

[neilw]

He lacks any sort of ability for nuanced or analytical thinking.

Fixed.

 

[vantelimus]

Assemble from all the imported parts, sure, but why? There’s not much added value in just assembly. Manufacture 100%? Keep dreaming.

But sure, assemble it, bump up the domestic parts percentage a bit and the product price a bit more, that’s doable. Ideally, do it on a robotic assembly line. Less ideally, have actual people tightening tiny screws just to “prove a point.”

Not to mention the machines, tools and materials required to do so. Even TSMC fabs use ASML EUV systems, similar to Tesla using Idra's casting machines.

Either way it would be just for domestic US market. Just like India forced Apple's hand. Rest of the World would still get iPhones etc. via the most economically viable process.

Such irony, importing industrial robots from China so that iPhones can be assembled in the US to satisfy the fevered dreams of a narcissist sociopath and Adenoid Hynkel wannabe.