Making smartphones is difficult. Right? really difficult. In fact, so difficult that even Apple's Tim Cook has found it to be challenging. once admitted It requires approximately 30,000 Chinese engineers supervising around 700,000 laborers to ensure the economic viability of iPhone production.
Although the U.S. lacks both the workforce and engineering capability for this task, Donald Trump and his team continuously claim that they can repatriate iPhone production back to America. This appears to be the clearest selling point underlying Trump's argument. unprecedented tariffs , as many experts suggest could drag down the U.S.—if not the entire globe—into an economic downturn. self-inflicted recession .
When asked if Trump believes iPhone production could shift to the U.S., White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied "definitely."
She says he thinks we possess the manpower, the workers, and the assets needed to accomplish this task, answered As everyone knows, Apple has committed $500 billion within the borders of the United States, which indicates that if Apple had doubts about America’s capabilities, they likely wouldn’t have allocated such a substantial amount of capital.
Apple, for its side, has not shown any signs that it intends to begin manufacturing iPhones in the U.S. shortly. $500 billion investment , revealed in February, encompasses a server production facility in Houston, along with an extension of the company’s TSMC Fab 21 semiconductor site in Arizona. This expansion reportedly supports 2,000 jobs, though there will be no construction of iPhone factories involved.
In total, Apple’s investment aims to create 20,000 new positions over the coming four years — which is just a small addition when viewed on a larger scale. 275,000 government jobs trimmed by DOGE up until now, let alone the almost 3 million jobs disappeared during Trump's initial term.
Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, is also carrying water for his boss' wild tariff plans, saying that The "army of millions upon millions of individuals assembling tiny components to manufacture iPhones—that sort of activity will reach American shores,"
Regardless of whether Americans want Those types of positions — which Vice President JD Vance very recently compared To “slave labor” — there’s no rationale to think these tariffs will achieve that, considering the expense of American labor and the recent advancements in automation. Even Lutnick promptly added a qualifier: “It’s going to be automated.”
Currently operating iPhone factories, on the other hand, depend significantly on globalized trade , which the The US has consistently contributed to enforcing . To produce an iPhone, Apple obtains components and raw materials from various suppliers. 200 suppliers across 43 countries , most of which Trump has now chosen to impose taxes on.
Similarly, Apple depends significantly on China. highly-organized economy and education system to turn out high-skilled workers, the latter of which is also a huge boost for the US.
"The skill here is just incredible," Cook said at a 2017 conference in China. "In the US you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields."
In terms of manufacturing, the U.S. still has many years ahead before it could possibly produce iPhones, not to mention doing so at a cost comparable to China’s prices. Maybe one day industry analyst put it best: "[this] would be like me watching an NBA game, and being like, 'oh it's easy to score a basket.'"
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