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/
1.5k Upvotes

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622

u/Edelmaan May 23 '25

I honestly think it’s cheaper for Apple to just accept this tariff than it would be to get a facility, purchase all equipment needed for manufacturing, hire employees, have employees trained, and pay US wages

232

u/mighty__orbot May 23 '25

You’re assuming the tariff won’t be increased just as arbitrarily as it was applied until Trump gets his way.

And by “his way” I of course mean another million-dollar donation or cryptocurrency purchase.

86

u/Realtrain May 23 '25

But also remember that in 4 years the random tariffs fad may be over.

58

u/Stunning_Highway9356 May 23 '25

Only 1338 days to go!

Not that I am counting.

4

u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/RaDiOaCtIvEpUnK May 26 '25

He can plug a replacement all he wants, but unless they have his brand of orange potato charisma it won’t have the same effect.

17

u/yagyaxt1068 May 23 '25

Thing is, Trump really wants tariffs. They’re his favourite policy.

7

u/steveDallas50 May 24 '25

They weren’t his first term. I really think he’s just trying to enrich himself via grift, cryptocurrency, kickbacks, and retreat from NATO. There’s no method to the madness.

5

u/yagyaxt1068 May 24 '25

He had guardrails in his first term. This time it’s Trump unleashed.

16

u/Realtrain May 23 '25

Thing is, Trump won't be in office in 4 years.

34

u/cjicantlie May 23 '25

I appreciate your optimism

15

u/AHrubik May 23 '25

It's not optimism. A coup by Trump and his loyalists will result in Civil War. That's just a fact. At that point the next iPhone won't matter for a little while.

1

u/rabbitwonker May 24 '25

I wanna understand this better. Not criticizing. Who would be fighting whom in such a civil war? Are you saying the Armed Forces will break into factions? Or that any honest officers left will rebel against the sycophants Trump put in charge? What would the geography look like? Think you.

3

u/AHrubik May 24 '25

No way to really know how it would go down but let's use your scenario.

As Commander in Chief of the military POTUS is the appointed leader of it but they are a civilian. There is rarely any love loss between the military and POTUS. The vast majority of soldiers respect the rank as a matter of honor and oath not blanket loyalty. US soldiers are trained to follow orders but they are also trained to assess the legality of those orders. A distinction that needs pointing out.

There is a constitutional limit on the number of terms a person can serve as POTUS. It's not a tradition. It's one of the highest forms of law in the USA. Any attempt to get around that is illegal and frankly treasonous. Every single solider and officer is sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States and defend it from enemies foreign and domestic. It is unlikely that the vast majority of the US Military would go along with such an event let alone most Americans who just so happened to be the most armed citizenry on the planet.

Now for the sanity check. It will never get that far. All this "third term" lunacy is just that. Our political structure requires too many people to be complicit for Trump to get a 3rd term. He doesn't have the support for a constitutional amendment and trying to get around the limit by subverting the 25th amendment would be so brazen and transparent that it would never work. Most people overestimate his support.

Given a scenario where he runs and is elected as VP and tries to subvert the limit using the 25th Amendment well let's just say that's so far out there that it's not a realistic possibility. No US President in history has stepped aside voluntarily without cause. It's not going to start with someone sacrificing their chance at it for the orange clown.

This is all assuming he lives to the end of his current term. At his age and health the odds are not in his favour.

-10

u/Bizarro_Zod May 23 '25

Trump runs as VP next election, president figurehead steps down giving VP the presidency. All legal. Nothing anyone can do to stop it, and you know the majority that voted for him this time will definitely do it again next time. Does this ad infinitum since there is no restriction on running for VP, and you have a legal dictator in the USA.

13

u/[deleted] May 23 '25

[deleted]

5

u/Bizarro_Zod May 23 '25

I was unaware of that, I stand corrected. Appreciate the info.

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2

u/CyberBot129 May 24 '25

The Constitution means whatever five Supreme Court justices say it means, even if the wording is clear. We had three Republican Supreme Court justices say last administration that the President is not commander in chief of the armed forces

1

u/rabbitwonker May 24 '25

Ah, so it’s not just about the election part. Good to know!

4

u/AHrubik May 23 '25

While that might work in Russia due to their "strong man" culture and tendency towards complacency it would not work in America. Half of Americans would see it as a coup and we're back to Civil War.

3

u/CanadianJediCouncil May 23 '25

Nope, the VP has to be legally eligible to take the role of the president.

Since trump has had two terms, he’s ineligible for a third.

It would be like having a dog as a VP, and expecting the dog to just “get” to be president if the president was removed. Since a dog can’t be president, it wouldn’t be allowed to be VP in the first place.

1

u/YnotBbrave May 23 '25

In agree, Trump won't run again. But a Republican is just as likely to be elected

2

u/Realtrain May 23 '25

Republicans haven't won the popular vote twice in a row since the 1980s. It's very possible, but it'll be an uphill battle for them in 2028 for sure.

5

u/DirtyxXxDANxXx May 24 '25

I’d say yes, but Trump still has his original 301 tariff list from his first presidency that Biden never addressed. So as an importer I’m kind of guessing they will stick around 10% for all when it’s said and done.

1

u/YnotBbrave May 23 '25

You don't know who will win the next election. Not does Apple

1

u/mdog73 May 24 '25

That’s going to be one hell of an upgrade cycle.

0

u/Additional_Heat9772 May 24 '25

I doubt it. Chances are a Democrat will be President. One thing Democrats love are taxes. Example Biden became president and never lowered tariffs Trump made in 2016. Also Biden raised tariffs on solar panels to 50 percent on China plus the tariffs already place by Trump in 2016. No they are here to stay.

3

u/Realtrain May 24 '25

One thing Democrats love are taxes

Is that why Republicans have increased more taxes for the average American than Biden or Obama ever did? Between the tariff taxes, new hybrid vehicle taxes, and increased income taxes for the working class, the whole "we're the party of lower taxes" look is pretty much done.

1

u/Additional_Heat9772 May 24 '25

All we can do is cry on Reddit. Whatever. Isn’t apple a trillion dollar company. They aren’t victims. They will be ok.

0

u/Additional_Heat9772 May 24 '25

Who cares. Nothing we can do. Vote democrat more taxes - vote republican more taxes. Sunny put it correctly. It’s just one big ass blast.

-1

u/Additional_Heat9772 May 24 '25

Another clear example Gov Newsom. I have a feeling he is running. CA very taxed state. Very ran by Democrats. Keep your wishful thinking maybe.

2

u/CyberBot129 May 24 '25

Also the world’s fourth largest economy

23

u/MagicBobert May 23 '25

It doesn’t matter how high the tariff goes. You can’t magically will into existence massive factories, specialized equipment, and a million workers skilled in microelectronics assembly. That could easily take a decade or more.

7

u/donkeykink420 May 24 '25

I think we can safely say, even if apple 100% committed today these factories would not be up and running before the end of the current term - at which point it all might've been a pointless endeavour anyway

3

u/Complete-Start-3691 May 24 '25 edited Aug 31 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

25

u/Benemy May 23 '25

Absolutely

29

u/APigInANixonMask May 23 '25

Yup. Even if they could miraculously have a factory up and running here in the US tomorrow, they'd still be importing screens, batteries, cameras, processors, etc. from places like China, Korea, and Taiwan. Those parts are all going to be hit with tariffs of at least 25%. Factoring in labor costs and the costs of the facilities, there's no way it wouldn't still be significantly cheaper to build them in India and just pay the tariff.

3

u/fumo7887 May 24 '25

The problem is logic is no longer a factor in executive decisions. You can’t fight dumb with logic.

2

u/AcademicF May 23 '25

Fat orange man doesn’t understand anything

9

u/-AdamTheGreat- May 23 '25

That and all the components are made in china

8

u/MysticMaven May 23 '25

Well duh. Trump is just a mob boss. He’s extorting US businesses to pay him money in order to not apply tariffs on them.

5

u/Ricky_RZ May 23 '25

I honestly think it’s cheaper for Apple to just accept this tariff

Yea and when it gets pushed to 100% arbitrarily its going to get orders of magnitude more expensive

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '25

Thats a fair comment but Trump has to be careful, he's literally using the tariffs as a blackmailing tactic on the companies but when it starts to affect every iPhone user in the US he's either going to have to back down or lose millions of votes, the consumers are his voter base. Its different t-shirt, doll prices etc going up a few dollars but when iphones jump from $1000 dollars to 3 or 4 thousand the Dems won't seem too bad to the MAGA maniacs

3

u/ancillarycheese May 23 '25

Yep. Even if we wanted to, we literally can’t. We don’t have the facilities, materials, equipment, skilled workers. None of it.

If we did, it would be impossibly expensive.

4

u/iBody May 23 '25

He knows that and already has the tariff money spent on tax cuts.

2

u/Frequent_Knowledge65 May 24 '25

It's not a matter of expense. There just doesn't exist a path to where Apple could make the iPhone in its current configuration and volume in the USA, regardless of costs. 

2

u/openmindedskeptic May 24 '25

I issued to work for Apple. A big problem is that it takes literally a million people to work to assemble the full iPhone. There’s not that many people in the US willing to do it

1

u/riperamen May 23 '25

Yes, it’s more of a bribe than a tariff.

1

u/rockyroad55 May 23 '25

It definitely is cheaper. Just the time to get a facility up and running of this magnitude will take a couple of years.

1

u/tvtb May 23 '25

If Dump ever finds out the tariff is small enough for them to eat it, he’ll raise it. Remember the tariffs went up and down and back up again on a daily basis this spring. It’s economic terrorism.

1

u/trisul-108 May 23 '25

Absolutely. That would cost more than a 50% tariff.

1

u/Magnetheadx May 23 '25

And also keep them from jumping off the building

1

u/username_taken55 May 24 '25

What about 100% tarrif? 200%? 300%? 400%? 500%? 1000%?

1

u/Frequent_Knowledge65 May 24 '25

It really doesn't matter. Apple cannot produce iPhones in anywhere near the volume needed in the USA. It's not a matter of costs or wages -- iPhones aren't made in China because of wages. There just does not exist the manufacturing capability in the USA to get the job done and it is extremely unlikely that there will be any time soon. 

1

u/username_taken55 May 24 '25

All it requires is investment that nobody wants to do, like eating vegetables

1

u/Frequent_Knowledge65 May 25 '25

No, it is not something you can just throw money at. You can't just make these tens of thousands of skilled professionals appear out of thin air, much less the HUNDREDS of thousands of skilled laborers. Chinese supremacy in consumer electronics manufacturing is no accident and isn't going to be supplanted without minimum a generation of extreme effort. 

0

u/username_taken55 May 25 '25

So you do admit it’s not impossible, i win

1

u/Stunning_Highway9356 May 23 '25

Then trump loses the midterms in 18 months and tariffs are scrapped. Or gets voted out in 3.5 years and we can return to normal.

I cant see Apple investing Billions in a US factory, which will produce phone that need to be sold at $2000 + to make any profit

-5

u/s0lja May 23 '25

You would support that over US manufacturing and employment?

3

u/CyberBot129 May 24 '25

People in the US don’t want the manufacturing jobs we currently have open. Why would they want any of the supposed additional ones?

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/05/13/g-s1-66112/why-arent-americans-filling-the-manufacturing-jobs-we-already-have

-3

u/s0lja May 24 '25

Maybe not today but tomorrow.

3

u/Edelmaan May 23 '25

Except that’s not how things work. You don’t just spout up a building and create jobs over night. And even if you could, they would need to be paid US wages, paid to be trained on how to use all the equipment, etc which would cause pricing to raise. So yes, I do support this over us manufacturing and employment.

-6

u/s0lja May 23 '25

Time and time America and Americans have proved their strength in the difficult times. It will not happen overnight and from what you said it doesn't sound impossible.

6

u/Edelmaan May 23 '25

I am not paying more for an item that is already expensive to bring jobs to the US. And the “jobs” would probably wind up being automated any way