Donald Trump sounds confident that Tim Cook will bring Apple manufacturing jobs back to the United States. In a new interview, the president-elect said Cook “loves his country” and has “his eyes open” to building production facilities at home.
Trump called for Apple and other big U.S. companies to start manufacturing goods in the United States throughout his presidential campaign, and he’s held meetings with Cook since he was elected to try and persuade him to bring jobs back from China.
During one conversation, Trump told Cook it would be a “big achievement” to build manufacturing plants in America — and Cook appears to have been swayed.
“I really believe he loves this country and I think he’d like to do something major here,” Trump told Axios.
“And I told him, I said, ‘Tim, it’s going to be a big achievement the day you start building some of your big plants in this country instead of other countries.’ And I think he’s got his eyes open to it.”
It certainly seems like Cook is more open to the idea than Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs ever was. Back in 2010, a year into his first presidential stint, Barack Obama asked Apple about manufacturing at home, and Jobs said bluntly, “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”
How Trump will encourage Apple to bring manufacturing to U.S.
Trump isn’t just pleading with Apple to bring manufacturing jobs to America, though; he’s also introducing changes that will make the move more attractive — like easing regulations and cutting taxes.
He could also cut repatriation taxes, allowing Apple to bring billions of dollars currently sitting in banks overseas into the United States without having to hand over so much to the government.
There are plenty of reasons why manufacturing in China makes more sense for Apple, however. Not only are labor costs significantly cheaper, but there are a greater number of skilled workers, too — as Cook explained during an interview with 60 Minutes in December 2015.
“You can take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in a room that we’re currently sitting in,” Cook told Charlie Rose. “In China, you would have to have multiple football fields.”
Apple certainly won’t be manufacturing all of its products in the United States anytime soon, but Trump should be pleased Cook is at least open to the idea of building some plants there.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
24 responses to “Trump sounds confident that Apple will start manufacturing in U.S.”
Yeah and next pigs will fly.
Oh you sound so positive, so hopeful. Guess 8 years of Obama set your expectations that way. His idea of “hope” was apparently just lip service.
Of course, had Hillary done that she’d be lauded as a heroine for all of America.
Experts have pointed out in numerous articles over the months why this won’t happen. Trump is filling your head with fantasies and empty promises as he assembles the richest cabinet in history. Yeah, things will really change for the middle class with the billionaire in charge.
“Experts” huh? Like who? Economists? The same people that predict the stock market and that Apple was going to fold?
So Trump won’t change things for the middle class, but Hillary sure would have, because she’s merely a multi-millionaire. She has less money than him, therefore she’d do a better job. Liberal logic, I tell you!
Better to have elected Hillary, where she’d just give up on manufacturing in America entirely, and give it all to the Chinese, so they could be a bigger superpower. That’s surely the way to do it, because she’s what you call a professional politician.
Oh boy, we have the ‘Experts’ guy here. Better to listen to tabloids and politicians than people that are educated in the fields and actually know what they’re doing…
Do you say ‘shut up you “Expert”!’ when you go to the doctor as well and then go smoke a joint because someone said it cures AIDS ?
And no, Trump will not change anything for the middle man. Not because he has more money than Hillary – but because he’s a ruthless businessman elite – he will make things better for the corporations and the millions of low income people that voted for him full of hope – will be sorely disappointed.
It’s like the stock market – “experts” cannot predict it, if they could they’d all be rich and quit their economist jobs. So many events through history were not predicted correctly. This is not at all like medical science, so stop comparing it.
The business and financial experts all predicted Apple would fold in the ’90s, and had they listened to them, Apple would have sold itself off and everyone dumped their stock. And Apple is where now? The largest most successful company in history.
Trump may not save every job, but he will make a positive impact. Better to TRY than throw your hands up and say “it can’t be done” like the Democrats. I guess just GIVE UP and focus on protecting undocumenteds and tossing out welfare.
You mean like those experts who said Trump had no chance, whatsoever, of winning the election?
Or the experts who said the iPhone would be a flop?
Sure they will. And a basic MacBook with cost $5,000.
They need to bring back vocational training in high school. Like it or not, not everyone is cut out for college.
And just what vocation would they train for? Metal shop? Oh, that’s gone to China. Wood shop? Ditto. Auto mechanics? We’re going electric, haven’t you heard?
Electric cars don’t use internal combustion engines. A lot less maintenance, a lot less need for service. You have brakes, tires, and that sort of thing. The rest is a battery and a motor.
But most lithium-ion batteries are made in other countries, thanks to the work of Bill Clinton and Obama.
They say that the workforce isn’t skilled. So let’s build up the workforce.
High taxes on businesses and manufacturing is what has driven thousands of manufacturers (and thus manufacturing jobs) out of the US for decades. Trying to operate a large manufacturing business in the US due to high taxes and tons of government red tape is what has driven Apple, Ford and thousands of others to manufacture in Mexico, China, the far east and South America where costs and taxes are CONSIDERABLY lower.
Look at it this way: Detroit used to be the hub of the automotive manufacturing industry in the US. It was a rich and successful city, and it dominated the world in vehicle production up to and including the 60’s. A large percentage of the people of Detroit worked in the auto industry and brought home a good paycheck. Then as taxes and government regulations increased and became more burdensome, car manufacturers started closing their plants and moving their facilities to other countries where they could operate profitably. The result was tens of thousands of lost jobs. Couple that with a highly socialist Democrat government for years obsessed with raising taxes to pay for social programs instead of helping businesses to prosper, and it simply overwhelmed the system.
Detroit is proof that taxing the hell out of businesses leads to no businesses and no jobs. As soon as you make it possible for businesses to run profitably, jobs will start to be created. When people have paychecks and work to do, they don’t need government handouts. Socialist governments do the exact opposite of what is good for the economy. They tax businesses until they leave or go out of business. They kill off the very thing that made America great, the American dream: The ability to build a company that produces products that people like and find useful. I’m hoping that Donald Trump will continue to help American businessmen/women with tax incentives so that manufacturing can come back to the US.
Higher taxes has little to do about jobs leaving out of the country. Dirty cheap labor did. Apple and a lot of hardware companies want that China cheap labor.
Yep. And with Obamacare and welfare and handouts to refugees the Democrats are making the people more and more dependent on the government, which is exactly what they want. Full government control. Take away guns so you can’t revolt. Take money from the rich and give to the poor.
Don’t Liberals see this coming? Is this what you want?
If every one paid TAXES. FRUMP don’t pay taxes. If he does show me. Russia will have America’s Master login today.
Apple did try manufacturing the Mac Pro in the US, and that model costs a fortune and hasn’t been updated for several years.
Only way I see apple manufacturing in the US is if there was some deal offered that they can repatriate money earned abroad at a cut-price tax rate on a one-to-one basis with what they pay American workers. Every $10 million paid to US workers = $10 million repatriated.
There are few things in life that hve a zero chance of happening. Most things have at least .0001 percent chance or similar.
Chance of this happening: zero.
Wow, Obama should have made you Secretary of Commerce! You’d do great things for this country.
After Republicans have reduced America to a 3rd world country…..
Replying to nearly every comment in nearly every thread ? Wow, you really must have a sad life and absolutely nothing to do with your time… get a job perhaps ?
Yay, make US the sweatshop of the world instead of China. Don’t educate people, don’t encourage going into engineering, space sciences, biology etc. – bring tedious manual labour back to the US because apparently that’s the future…
If Apple brings manufacturing back to the US – it will be automated. And the jobs it will create will go to the few with degrees and engineers that either design the machines if Apple decides to build their own ( not gonna happen for many many years ) or be brought from abroad by companies that already developed them. And no amount of Trump’s bitching is going to change that…
And which culture is that ? The one that elected a fascist as their president ? I’d rather go Chinese, thank you very much…