Trump Threatens 25% Tariffs on Apple If iPhones Not Made in US
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
And the only logical choice for consumers/voters is to decide if they want to support this "tax" and by extension, it's proponent.
The simple fact is that we now live in an interconnected world. It is simply not possible or practical to natively produce everything that goes into an iPhone. Not now, not within the decades to come and probably not ever.
And decrees from the fuhrer and pining for yesteryear won't change this.
Tim already paid his bribe, https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-don... and others who have cut deals with him have found those deals to be less than solid. Law firms that settled with Trump have reported that they've received demands well outside their agreements.
The choice for Apple (and everyone) is how to respond effectively and appropriately.
As it stands, the world economy is being subjected to the whims of one person. And this person has a checkered history with marketplace economics.
A future President could have the entire admin thrown out of a plane on the way to El Salvador as an official act of national security.
I can dream.
US is a huge country with tremendous human capital and natural resources. I don’t see issues with US producing much more goods than it is producing now. It might be not practical, or not practical yet, but it’s for sure possible.
It is working on for sure, but not there yet. It still have too low unemployment rates for these potential jobs to become cheap enough.
This seems so stupid because we don't really need every continent to have a very complex and expensive supply chain for tiny electronic components when boats and money both exist, but let's say you disagree on that.
On what earth does it make sense to tariff smartphones in 2025 with zero warning? It would take ten years to fully construct a completely domestic supply chain for iPhones if you started today. So why not announce a tariff that starts in 10 years, so that that can be built, but we don't burden all Americans with this high tax on something everyone buys?
(Answer: Everybody knows Trump and Navarro will be dead in 10 years and that anyone else would cancel this dumbass idea and replace it with policy that isn't so idiotic and self-defeating.)
Because it's higher taxes only for people who work and buy things and this allows lowering taxes on those who play finance games.
The real irony is those most disadvantaged by this are the people who voted for it. Stupid is as stupid does.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-crypto-golf-club-dinner-...
[0] https://www.axios.com/2025/01/03/tim-cook-apple-donate-1-mil... - nb4: Tim Cook = Apple for the purposes of this. I'm "he" donated to give Apple a firewall and a way to disown it when he retires (or hopefully is let go sooner).
That said, I think current Trump wants to get his beak more wet. If Tim isn't an idiot, he's looking into joint ventures where Apple brokers and finances a couple of Trump Hotels in China or something. Not a million bucks.
As far as we know there’s nobody with an education in this administration who is making any sensible argument why these random choices make sense / will produce.
Everyone in the administration who takes questions are political appointees / politicians and they to a person eventually ignore any specific questions and then tell you how great Trump is. The press conferences are creepy at times.
The little info that leaks out from insiders indicates Trump doesn’t take advice from even his own staff often and they are blindsided by tweets frequently.
Navarro is to tariffs as Ron Paul was to "abolishing the Fed"
He's 7.
As an Indian, this makes me a bit sad. Less about the fact that iPhone manufacturing in India is threatened, and more about the fact that my loophole of getting cheaper iPhones (via a US relative/friend) is now closed...