U.S. President Donald Trump issued a fresh warning to Apple on Friday: manufacture iPhones in the United States or face a 25% tariff.
“I told Tim Cook of Apple a long time ago that iPhones sold in the United States should be made here—not in India or anywhere else,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “If that’s not the case, Apple should pay a tariff of at least 25%.”
The warning comes days after Trump expressed frustration during a trip to the Middle East over Apple’s plans to shift more iPhone production to India. On a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the company expects most iPhones sold in the U.S. to soon be manufactured in India.
In recent years, Apple has been working to diversify its supply chain and reduce reliance on China. Cook noted that Apple could face tariffs totaling up to $900 million this quarter alone. The impact could have been worse: last month, Trump exempted electronics from sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, a move that benefited Apple and other tech giants.
Speaking from Qatar, Trump voiced his displeasure directly: “I told Tim, ‘You’re my friend. I’ve treated you very well. You’re coming in with $500 billion. But now I hear you’re building up India. I don’t want you building in India.'”
Apple—the world’s most valuable publicly traded company—has long maintained that manufacturing iPhones in the U.S. is not feasible. The company argues that countries like China and India have larger pools of skilled labor and far lower production costs.
Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs raised the issue in a 2010 meeting with then-President Barack Obama, blaming the U.S. education system for not producing enough industrial engineers. Jobs reportedly told Obama that Apple needed 30,000 such engineers to support its manufacturing workforce—a number simply unavailable in the U.S.
Current CEO Tim Cook echoed that assessment in a 2012 interview, though he expressed hope that Apple would eventually produce more in the U.S., saying, “I want that day to come… and you can bet we’ll use our influence to make it happen.”
Industry experts also view large-scale relocation of iPhone production as unrealistic. “The idea that Apple will make iPhones in the U.S. is a fairy tale,” said Dan Ives, global tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, in a recent interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. He estimated that a U.S.-made iPhone could cost more than three times the current $1,000 price tag, given the need to recreate Asia’s intricate manufacturing ecosystem.
Even moving just 10% of Apple’s supply chain to the U.S. would take roughly $30 billion and three years to execute, Ives added.
Still, Apple appears to be making gestures to appease political pressure. Earlier this year, the company announced a $500 billion investment to expand its U.S. operations. That includes a new server facility in Houston—previously outsourced abroad—to support Apple Intelligence, its new artificial intelligence initiative. The tech giant will also expand data centers in several states and invest in Apple TV+ content production across 20 states, among other domestic initiatives.
