President Trump says he told Tim Cook that “I don't want you building in India”, “India can take care of themselves”, and Apple will be “upping” US production

President Donald Trump said India has made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods …

Bloomberg 2025-05-15

Context & Ripple Effects

This escalates a pressure campaign that previously paired US-production demands with claims that Apple had halted two planned Mexican plants. It now explicitly targets India, a manufacturing destination already exposed when new tariffs were announced for India and Vietnam.

The significance is less a confirmed operational change than the narrowing set of locations Apple can pursue without attracting US political pressure.

First-order effects

Apple faces immediate public pressure to raise US production and reconsider further Indian expansion; the report does not establish that Apple has agreed to either step.
India’s reported offer to drop tariffs on US goods becomes part of the bilateral trade backdrop surrounding Apple’s supply-chain decisions.

Second-order effects

Suppliers and assemblers tied to Apple’s India plans face greater planning uncertainty, while prospective US manufacturing partners gain negotiating leverage if Apple must show more domestic investment.
Apple’s ability to use India as an alternative production base is more directly entangled with tariff policy, following the earlier tariff exposure for India and Vietnam.

Third-order effects

If this pressure persists, location decisions for consumer-electronics production may be shaped less by diversification alone and more by governments’ demands for domestic capacity.
The result could be a more politically segmented supply chain: firms retain multiple production options, but access to the US market increasingly depends on where final production occurs.

The trend: This is one data point in the politicization of supply-chain diversification, as governments use tariffs and public pressure to influence where global technology companies manufacture.

Discussion

@brunojnavarro Bruno J. Navarro on bluesky
sad and hilarious to see what passes as ‘leadership’ these days
@mrsdeborahlynn Deborah Lynn on bluesky
www.cnbc.com/2025/05/15/t... Experts generally agree that moving production of the iPhone to the U.S. would be highly unlikely because of the final price of the end product. Varying estimates put the cost of an iPhone between $1,500 to $3,500, if it were made in the U.S.
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
Evergreen Reading: Why Trump's Dream of Made-in-the-USA iPhones Isn't Going to Happen https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@soutikbbc Soutik Biswas on x
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook,” Trump said of his conversation with the Apple chief executive office. “He is building all over India. I don't want you building in India.” Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.” https://www.bloomberg.com/..…
@acyn @acyn on x
Trump: And I had a little problem with Tim cook yesterday... I said, Tim, look, we've treated you really good. We put up with all the plants that you built in China for years.. We're not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves. [video]
@vnchocotaco @vnchocotaco on x
Lmfaoo
@patrickmoorhead Patrick Moorhead on x
I've said many times that the administration would view Apple's move from China to India with disfavor, as hard as it is to build phones in the U.S. Just wait until they realize that the subassemblies are made in China for the phones assembled in India. $AAPL Link 👇🏻 [image]
@blitzkreigm Mangalam Maloo on x
And now Trump says: “Told Tim Cook to not manfacture in India, they can take care of themselves” Obviously he'd say that now - as a deal with China's in place and India is refuting US claims of brokering peace in the region.
@redboxindia @redboxindia on x
Apple has assured govt of making India as a major mfg base for its products. There's no change in apple's investment plans in India, Govt sources to CNBC TV18
@roshankrraii Roshan Rai on x
Breaking : Donald Trump asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to not Make In India as they charge high tarrifs. This is the same guy for whom Narendra Modi broke India's decade long policy and held a political rally. Modi and his Bhakts should be shamed today. [video]
@worthwray Worth Wray on x
Glad to see Apple's decision to move iPhone production to India is being questioned. Electronics hardware is an essential building block of modern economic activity & compromised electronics hardware is a key strategic vulnerability. America does not make enough of this hardware
@refsrc Manish Singh on x
Trump says he told Apple CEO that he doesn't want the company to be building in India. [image]
@jedimarkus77 @jedimarkus77 on x
Must I do the “Indiana, not India” joke again? $AAPL https://www.bloomberg.com/... [image]
@arjunkharpal Arjun Kharpal on x
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “I said to him, 'my friend, I treated you very good. You're coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you're building all over India.' I don't want you building in India.” $AAPL https://www.cnbc.com/...
@amockx2022 @amockx2022 on x
BIGGEST BREAKING 🚨 Modi's friend Donald Trump said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook not to build in India “I have told Cook that i have problems with you if you manufacture in India” Will Narendra Modi dare call it out to take a stand for India?? Don't forget that Mukesh Ambani [video]
r/gadgets r on reddit
Trump Tells Tim Cook to Stop Building iPhones in India
r/technology r on reddit
Trump Tells Tim Cook to Stop Building iPhones in India
r/apple r on reddit
Trump Wants Apple to Stop Moving iPhone Production to India
@brad_setser Brad Setser on x
Apple has had an enormous impact on the Bay Area, and on the US stock market. But it may have had a bigger impact on the economies of two foreign countries: Ireland (pioneering the “green jersey") and China. Excellent stuff from @PatrickMcGee_ https://www.thetimes.com/...
@thehonestlypod @thehonestlypod on x
Author @PatrickMcGee_ on Apple's unprecedented—and dangerous—investment in China: “If you have been training our biggest adversary with cutting edge electronics over the last 25 years, you're actually arming their military means by the same token. The national security [video]
@restofworld @restofworld on x
“Apple's influence on China exceeds that of the Marshall Plan's impact on Europe after World War II.” — @PatrickMcGee_, speaking with @violazhouyi about his new book “Apple in China.” Read the full interview: https://restofworld.org/...
@jchengwsj Jonathan Cheng on x
.@PatrickMcGee_: “Apple's influence on China exceeds that of the Marshall Plan's impact on Europe after World War II. Apple acknowledges that it's trained 28 million workers in China since 2008...greater than the labor force of California.” @violazhouyi https://restofworld.org/..…
@thehonestlypod @thehonestlypod on x
Author @PatrickMcGee_: “The [Tim] Cook Plan was about ingratiating Apple with Communist leadership. So in a certain sense... it actually helped to establish the Communist Party rather than ward off that threat.” https://www.thefp.com/... [video]
@thehonestlypod @thehonestlypod on x
“China was a dragon wearing a three-piece suit.” @PatrickMcGee_ on how China fooled the world into believing that foreign dollars would democratize their authoritarian, communist regime. [video]
@electricfelix @electricfelix on x
.@issielapowsky: “You write about the sheer size of the investment that Apple ultimately made in China—$55B every year for 5 years, adding up to $275B You compare that to what Congress allocated in the CHIPS & Science Act: $52B That's $3B shy of what #Apple was spending every [im…
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
I realize this is supposed to be a sick burn, but it's wildly helpful. True - Apple's public financial filings don't lead you in this direction. It would be corporate suicide if they did. The notes are *almost* right: $55bn was about 22% of Apple's 2015 revenue. 90% of Apple
@thehonestlypod @thehonestlypod on x
Author @PatrickMcGee_: The West “sleepwalked” into making China a global powerhouse. Corporations like Apple “were setting up the world's most sophisticated supply chain—and made the rookie and calamitous mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket. And that basket [video]
@joshdcaplan Josh Caplan on x
.@PatrickMcGee_ to @bariweiss: “In 1999, zero products from Apple are being made in China.” “By 2009, virtually all of them are.” “That transition is a geopolitical event like the fall of the Berlin Wall.” [video]
@thehonestlypod @thehonestlypod on x
“Our understanding is one of Apple exploiting Chinese workers,” says @PatrickMcGee_. “But I flipped that on its head: Beijing is allowing Apple to exploit Chinese workers so that Beijing can in turn exploit Apple.” “Beijing understands that if they lure in foreign capital, they […
@yahoofinance @yahoofinance on x
“What's moving to India is assembly, so if you think there are 1000 steps in making an iPhone, the final step will be done in India for phones that are going to the US,” Financial Times San Francisco correspondent @PatrickMcGee_ says on $AAPL. [video]
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
“If next year you buy an iPhone and it says “Made in India” on the box, that phone will not be any less dependent on the China-centric supply chain than any other iPhone you have ever purchased.” Q&A with ⁦@restofworld⁩ ⁦@violazhouyi⁩ https://restofworld.org/...
@thehonestlypod @thehonestlypod on x
Author @PatrickMcGee_: China's singular manufacturing capabilities—in price, cost, quantity, and scale—has only been possible because @Apple made unprecedented investments in building them. “Apple is investing in China at twice the annual spend of the Marshall Plan.” [video]
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
Apple responds to the book - despite not having time to read it. Name the place, @apple . Happy to debate anytime. [Screenshot: “In a statement to Vanity Fair, Apple said that the book is “untrue” and “full of inaccuracies,” and that Apple didn't fact- check the book. Apple d…
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
Review of ‘Apple in China’: [image]
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
“Apple in China is astonishing. Let's hope for Apple's sake that Donald Trump doesn't read this book.” — @TheTelegraph__ (chief complaint isn't that I'm unfair to @apple but I that give them “too easy a ride") https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ...
@patrickmcgee_ Patrick McGee on x
“The US-China tech battle is the most consequential thing happening—geopolitically— for hegemony in the 21st century. And my book offers the disquieting message that America's greatest company is playing for the other side.” On the @hughhewitt show, one night before APPLE IN CH…

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