US president Donald Trump has told Apple CEO Tim Cook he has a problem with his plan to manufacture iThings in India.
Speaking on Thursday during his visit to Qatar, Trump said he spoke with Cook the previous day to discuss “a little problem”.
The president said he told Cook “Tim, you’re my friend. I’ve treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion but now I hear you’re building all over India.”
“I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India if you want to take care of India.”
Trump thinks we can make iPhones in the US just like China. Yeah, right
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Trump continued: “I said: ‘Tim, look … we put up with all the plants that you built in China for years. Now you’ve got to build us. We’re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves’.”
The president’s mention of Apple investing $500 billion in the USA is a reference to the February 2025 announcement in which the iGiant pledged to spend that sum on “work with thousands of suppliers across all 50 states, direct employment, Apple Intelligence infrastructure and datacenters, corporate facilities, and Apple TV+ productions in 20 states.” The company also promised to work with partners on a factory that will build servers to run the Apple Intelligence AI service.
Apple later said it would make iPhones for the US market in India, even as US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Cook wants to manufacture iPhones in America.
Trump said India’s tariffs policy is the reason he wants Apple to manufacture in the USA, as India’s duties mean its markets are largely closed to US exporters.
India does impose high tariffs, with most agricultural imports taxed at over 100 percent because its farm sector mostly comprises small landholders who struggle to achieve consistent profits and could face ruin if cheap imports enter the market. Farmers are a powerful political constituency in India and local politicians see opening the nation to imported agricultural goods as politically and economically perilous.
The country is trying to diversify its economy and tech manufacturing is a focus of those efforts. India has pitched itself to western nations as a more trustworthy source of manufactured goods than China and used supply chain disruptions of the COVID-19 years to suggest itself as a sensible second source of products to reduce risks.
India’s tariffs on manufactured goods are just under 30 percent. Like the USA, India uses those tariffs to encourage vendors to manufacture on its soil.
Manufacturers like the idea of working in India because wages and other costs are low on the subcontinent. That means local buyers expect to pay around $100 for a smartphone, a price that’s hard to achieve with imported devices. Establishing a presence in India means businesses can both deliver products at prices that in-country buyers will tolerate and take advantage of low costs for exports.
Apple appears to have accepted that logic and in recent years has moved much iPhone production from China to India.
Moving iPhone production to the USA, however, would increase Apple’s costs, meaning stateside consumers pay more for iThings.
Apple CEO Cook reportedly said Trump’s remarks won’t change his plans.
And Trump didn’t mention consequences if Apple does not heed his call not to manufacture India.
The president did say his administration has negotiated a zero-tariff deal for exports to India, however India’s government reportedly denied the two nations had struck such a deal. ®
