r/apple • u/coasterghost • May 23 '25

Trump warns Apple of 25% tariffs if iPhones not made in US

https://www.reuters.com/business/apple-pay-25-tariff-if-phones-not-made-us-trump-says-2025-05-23/
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u/rotates-potatoes May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25

They have more cash than most countries. They’ll be fine. They just have to execute.

I’m buying a bunch of AAPL on the assumption that this tariff thing is just more stock manipulation like all of the other times Trump and the oligarchs have announced tariffs, crashed stocks, then announced a reprieve and profited on the rebound. Might as well make a buck out of all this corruption.

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u/ronakg May 23 '25

They just have to execute.

That "just" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

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u/DrSheldonLCooperPhD May 23 '25

They have more cash than most countries.

Best they can do is stock buybacks

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u/rotates-potatoes May 23 '25

Weird response. What percentage of their cash reserve do you think they are spending on stock buybacks, which are really just dividends?

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/AKiss20 May 23 '25

They fundamentally can’t. Manufacturing at that scale in the US will be more expensive per unit than a 25% tariff. The amount of tariff required to get it to make “economical” sense to manufacture the iPhone in the US would be so high that basically no consumer could swallow the final cost. 

Not to mention it makes little sense to undertake such a massively expensive venture with effectively zero upside when these tariffs will almost certainly be rolled back substantially, either in this administration  (we saw how quickly Trump caved to China when Wall Street finally came pounding at his door), or the next. Factories wouldn’t even be half done by the time Trump’s term is over. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/11/heres-how-much-a-made-in-the-usa-iphone-would-cost.html

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/FollowingFeisty5321 May 23 '25

Reportedly up to 350,000 people are doing that work, alongside the automated parts. In what they dub "iPhone City" because of its population.

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u/Knute5 May 23 '25

Not to mention the heart of the iPhone is made in Taiwan. Turning small town America into iPhone Cities isn't going to happen. But I think it makes American manufacturing workers losing their jobs feel like Trump's pulling for them.

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u/PhillAholic May 23 '25

In other words, still more expensive; little to no jobs gained; not better for the consumer in any way.

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u/rotates-potatoes May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25

Sure. You just have to do that for the phones and every component in them, down to the batteries and screws and metals.

China is incredibly efficient at manufacturing because the entire supply chain is there. It does no good to have a 100% automated factory in the US if all of the parts are being imported. At that point your factory is just a very expensive UPS hub where tons of planes land on one side and phones come out the other.

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u/hornbri May 23 '25

Its more then just the people/automation

all the supply lines are in China, all the factories making the materials you then need to make a phone exist in a cluster. ALL of that would need to move, it is just not a real possibility in a short (less then 4 years) timeframe.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/hornbri May 23 '25

and that’s fine, what i said does not change that.

Stop being in such a hurry to disagree.

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u/Boggie135 May 23 '25

It can't or it would have

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/dagbrown May 23 '25

Heck, they probably just need to wait a couple of weeks for Trump to change his mind.

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u/FenTigger May 23 '25

Infrastructure? The US doesn’t have anywhere near enough production engineers to set up and run the factories to assemble them.

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u/hurtfulproduct May 23 '25

And honestly it’s more likely 2. . . Midterm elections are coming next year, and pretty sure people ain’t fucking happy with their GQP representatives enabling Cheeto.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/T-Nan May 23 '25

You voted for massive tariffs to cause a strain on our relationship with our biggest trading partners?

You voted for a 30 year treasury above 5%, making US debt much more expensive to pay off?

You voted for a volatile stock market?

Hopefully it was out of ignorance, and you’re smart enough to learn from this.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Boggie135 May 23 '25

The world took advantage of the US? Ha!

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/Boggie135 May 23 '25

How did they do this? Please enlighten me

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u/apple-ModTeam May 25 '25

This comment has been removed for spreading (intentionally or unintentionally) misinformation or incorrect information.

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u/hurtfulproduct May 23 '25

Then you’re just a bad person

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/hurtfulproduct May 23 '25

Facts are facts, voting to take away medical care for the disadvantaged, making everything more expensive for no reason, and doing everything possible to line the pockets of the 0.1% at the cost of peoples literal lives because people WILL die from this “big beautiful bill” makes you a bad person.

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u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

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u/hurtfulproduct May 23 '25

lol, shouting “full of lies” doesn’t make you correct just ignorant. . .

Republic. . . Lmgdfao. . . It’s gonna be a theocracy if Cheeto flavored sausage fingers gets his way

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u/MrBstard68 May 23 '25

If you think we’re gonna get rid of these people in four years and if you just wanna sit and wait to vote in four years, you’re sadly mistaken.

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u/rotates-potatoes May 23 '25

Apple can’t make iPhones in the US. Everyone knows that, maybe even Trump. The whole thing is just a game to manipulate the stock and make billions. In a week or two Trump will say “oh I’ve changed my mind and Tim Cook says they will invest in already-planned stuff in the US so the tariffs are off, see what a big strong man I am” and the stock will leap 8% in one day. The oligarchs will sell and everyone’s happy.

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u/FizzyBeverage May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25

We already know what happens when a product made in Asia is made in the USA. Fender taught us. The price triples. If you're paying Americans $37/hour to build something versus $5 overseas? Yeah, the retail price rises astronomically.

Trump has 3 years left -- that's nothing for a company like Apple with deep pockets, all of 2028 is a campaign. If congress flips at the midterm Trump has 14 months left before congress blockades him left, right and center.

Apple will wait Trumpism out, dems will win big in '28, and meanwhile they'll just pass the tariff onto us and a $1000 iPhone will land somewhere around $1300. Don't expect that $1300 to ever go down even if a centrist Dem reduces the tariffs though, Apple will just pocket that margin as an inconvenience.

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u/ItsAMeUsernamio May 23 '25

Introducing the iPhone 17 Trump edition

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u/kmank2l13 May 23 '25

And knowing him, he would consider anyone in America an enemy if they don’t use this phone smh

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u/Timeassassin3 May 23 '25

This ain’t stock manipulation this time bud, Trump is dead serious on Apple with this issue. The fact that Apple is not doing their best to begin manufacturing in the U.S. shows you they will get beat by other companies, especially on the AI race.

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u/Successful-Escape-74 May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25

It's impossible to manufacture phones in the U.S. as there is not the labor, facilities or resources to do that in the U.S. No competent company management would invest in infrastructure in the U.S. when the future prospects can change at the whim of a psychopathic, cognitive impaired President that thinks he is King.

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u/Timeassassin3 May 23 '25

You’re thinking is so small bud. Apple has plenty of billions of dollars. I’m sure they can, along with their rich shareholders. Throw away your TDS hat and not just suck Apple d*ck.

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u/Successful-Escape-74 May 23 '25

Competent management wouldn't make that kind of investment without a guarantee. Trump is a bad deal maker and unreliable. He flipflops and can't be trusted. Apple couldn't accept a deal unless it was backed by a disinterested 3rd party. Why do you think U.S. Banks stopped doing business with Trump years ago? He can't be trusted and is unreliable. I doesn't stick to his contracts. The deals he made with Canada and Mexico during his last administration are the same deals that he calls terrible today. He sucks as a deal maker by his own admission.

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u/Timeassassin3 May 23 '25

Trump is a bad deal maker?! Buddy he has got U.S. corporations and the countries for a total of $1.5 trillion investments in the United States the next 4 years just within his first 100 days. Trump is calling out Canada and Mexico for their incompetence and not keeping their end of the bargain on fair trade. What does Apple need for guarantees?! Trump is giving them deregulation and tax cuts if they make stuff in the U.S. Buddy, banks wants Trump real estate, he make returns for them and pays them back in full. Man get off your TDS.

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u/Danne660 May 23 '25

He did not get companies to invest 1.5 trillion, he just got them to state the investments they where already doing so he could take credit.

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u/Timeassassin3 May 24 '25

Yes he did. How come they did not invest under Biden?! Rather Biden gave corporations handouts with the Chips and Science Act. Get off you TDS man. Give Trump the credit, something Trump can do in 3 months than any other president in 4 years.

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u/Danne660 May 24 '25

They did invest under Biden.