Why Donald Trump’s dream of ‘US-made’ iPhones gained’t come true quickly – Firstpost

Donald Trump will be described as many issues. Some would name him a patriot — his ‘Make America Nice Once more’ stance is proof of it, whereas others could name him a flip-flopper — he made a dramatic U-turn on tariffs earlier this week, barring China.

But it surely’s not usually that Trump is known as a dreamer, a minimum of till now. As he wages a commerce conflict with China — the US president has levied a whopping 145 per cent tariff on the Asian large — he hopes for the tech large, Apple, to provide its flagship product, the iPhone, in the US.

However Apple executives in addition to different analysts imagine that is nothing past wishful considering. Moreover, analysts notice that even when the unattainable is achieved, it might be a really, very costly affair.

Right here’s why.

Trump needs ‘made-in-US’ iPhones

Amidst the
raging tariff conflict with China, US President Donald Trump believes that America is able to manufacturing iPhones.

On Tuesday (April 8), the White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “Completely. He believes we’ve got the labour, we’ve got the workforce, we’ve got the assets to do it,” when requested by reporters if Trump thought iPhone manufacturing might transfer to the US.

Reporter: “iPhones particularly. Is that one thing that he thinks is the sort of know-how that may transfer to the US?”

Karoline Leavitt: “Completely. He believes we’ve got the labor, we’ve got the workforce, we’ve got the assets to do it.” pic.twitter.com/Ruhu4cZpok

— The Submit Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 8, 2025

“If Apple didn’t assume the US might do it, they in all probability wouldn’t have put up that massive chunk of change,” she stated, referring to the $500 billion funding the tech large introduced not too long ago.

Trump doubled down on the declare on Wednesday, posting to his Reality Social community that: “It is a nice time to maneuver your organization into the US, like Apple, and so many others, in report numbers, are doing.

“Zero tariffs, and nearly fast electrical/power hook ups and approvals. No environmental delays.”

It’s necessary to notice right here that Apple’s principal manufacturing hub is China, adopted up by Vietnam and
India. In keeping with estimates from Evercore ISI, round 90 per cent of iPhones are assembled in China.

Earlier, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick additionally pitched a proposal for US-made iPhones whereas in an interview with CBS. “The military of tens of millions and tens of millions of individuals screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that sort of factor goes to return to America, it’s going to be automated, and the tradecraft of America goes to repair them, goes to work on them, there’s going to be mechanics, HVAC specialists, electricians,” he stated.

Lutnick: “The military of tens of millions and tens of millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones — that sort of factor goes to return to America.” pic.twitter.com/g9TqxGxLHs

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 6, 2025

Apple speaks on US-made iPhones

However plainly Trump’s want for an American-manufactured iPhone isn’t one thing that Apple envisions might occur. A minimum of, not within the subsequent few years.

In truth, iPhone maker’s founder Steve Jobs way back to 2010 stated that such a state of affairs wasn’t attainable. Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs, clearly describes conferences between Jobs and then-President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2011, the place Jobs defined that the issue is that America lacks the 30,000 correctly educated engineers wanted to assist a manufacturing unit workforce rivaling the 700,000 staff employed in China: Apple had 700,000 manufacturing unit staff employed in China, he stated, and that was as a result of it wanted 30,000 engineers on-site to assist these staff.

“You may’t discover that many in America to rent,” he stated.

Even present CEO Tim Prepare dinner has rejected this notion. In 2017, at Fortune Journal’s International Discussion board occasion, Prepare dinner stated firms like his relied on international locations equivalent to China not for reasonable labour, however for the standard of educated workers.

“…The reality is China stopped being the low labour value nation a few years in the past and that isn’t the rationale to return to China from a provide standpoint. The reason being due to the talent and the amount of talent in a single location, and the kind of talent. It’s just like the merchandise we do require actually superior tooling and the precision that it’s a must to have in tooling and dealing with the supplies that we do are state-of-the-art, and the tooling talent may be very deep right here. in, within the US, you could possibly have a gathering of tooling engineers, and I’m undecided we might fill the room — in China you could possibly fill a number of soccer fields.”

Tim Prepare dinner: Why Apple nonetheless makes use of Chinese language producers pic.twitter.com/zd59LweSNS

— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) December 7, 2017

America isn’t Apple land

Different specialists have additionally chimed in on this challenge. They imagine that the US, not like what Trump believes, doesn’t have the required necessities for Apple manufacturing.

As an illustration, Apple’s closing meeting, take a look at and pack-out (FATP) amenities in Asia are nearly cities with a number of hundred thousand folks, colleges, gyms, medical amenities and dormitories. One main iPhone manufacturing unit, a posh in Zhengzhou, has even been dubbed iPhone Metropolis.

“What metropolis in America goes to place all the pieces down and construct solely iPhones? As a result of there are tens of millions of individuals employed by the Apple provide chain in China,” Matthew Moore, the co-founder of a startup and a former Apple manufacturing engineer, advised Bloomberg. “Boston is over 500,000 folks. The entire metropolis would want to cease all the pieces and begin assembling iPhones.”

Tinglong Dai, a enterprise professor at Johns Hopkins College, concurred with this sentiment. In a Wall Avenue Journal report, he’s quoted as saying, “It wouldn’t be unattainable to purchase the manufacturing tools required, however getting sufficient people who find themselves in a position to run it is likely to be. We have now a extreme labour scarcity, and we’ve misplaced the artwork of producing at scale.”

Additionally, if these two points had been miraculously solved, what in regards to the challenge of finance? Specialists notice that it might take tens of millions of {dollars} for Apple to construct the manufacturing ecosystem for an All-American iPhone.

Heavy value of US-made iPhone

However even when Apple did pull off the unattainable and moved manufacturing to the US, it might come at a really excessive worth.

Dan Ives, world head of know-how analysis at monetary companies agency Wedbush Securities, advised CNN that the worth of an Apple iPhone might soar to round $3,500 (Rs 3.01 lakh) if it had been made within the US.

Talking to CNN, he stated that US-made iPhones might value greater than 3 times their present worth of round $1,000 (Rs 86,081), as a result of it might be obligatory to duplicate the extremely advanced manufacturing ecosystem that at present exists in Asia. “You construct that (provide chain) within the US with a fab in West Virginia and New Jersey. They’ll be $3,500 iPhones,” he stated.

In a separate interview with CBS, Ives stated, “Saying we will simply make this within the USA is an announcement that extremely understates the complexity of the Asia provide chain and the best way electronics, chips, semi fabs, {hardware}, smartphones, and so on, are made for US shoppers over the past 30 years.”

In the meantime, an April 3 evaluation from Rosenblatt Securities warned that tariffs alone might drive the worth of the iPhone 16 Professional Max 1TB — at present $1,599 (Rs 1.37 lakh) — as much as almost $2,300 (Rs 1.97 lakh). And that’s earlier than the
US-China commerce conflict escalation went into overdrive.

However, as some famous, it appears unlikely that Tim Prepare dinner would even contemplate transferring all of Apple’s manufacturing to the US, contemplating Trump’s flip-flopping on tariffs.

With inputs from companies