In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, President Trump claimed that three Apple manufacturing plants will be built in the United States. As Apple declined to comment, we have to take Mr. Trump at his word that this will happen. He didn’t disclose a location or a timeframe for when this would happen either.
Designed and Built in California?
“I spoke to [Mr. Cook], he’s promised me three big plants—big, big, big,” Mr. Trump said as part of a discussion about business-tax reform and business investment. “I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won’t consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward.”
This isn’t the first time that Mr. Trump has urged Apple to move more of its manufacturing back to the United States. During the presidential campaign, he wanted Apple to help bring more jobs in the U.S., a promise that the President hasn’t yet fulfilled.
Apple’s Contributions
Right now, Apple has two million jobs in the U.S., which includes Apple employees, suppliers, and app developers, while directly employing 80,000 American citizens. In May, Apple announced plans to create a US$1 billion dollar fund to invest in U.S. companies for advanced manufacturing.
Some Mac computers have been made in the U.S. for several years now. Flex Ltd. builds Macs in Austin, Texas, while Quanta Computer Inc. builds them in Fremont, California. There is even talk of Foxconn building a manufacturing plant in the U.S., possibly in Wisconsin.
See this story: http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/26/technology/business/foxconn-wisconsin/index.html
Trump had nothing to do with this. He is an opportunist. He learned this was coming and now he is claiming credit for it. Something like this doesn’t happen in the 6 months he has been President. Wake up America!
“On the other hand,” Tevye says out loud to the sky, “then they would open themselves to very nasty lawsuits for failure to maximize shareholder value… TRADITION!”
But shareholder value could be enhanced by the goodwill, quality, and stability of having their manufacturing done in America as well. I see your point, but when it comes to this much money and power, every point can be sliced and diced a hundred ways.
Apple already has policies that don’t maximize shareholder value in a strictly dollar amount. They have and do enforce policies that benefit the environment, the pay and conditions of workers here and abroad. They could cut corners in a number of areas; but they would justly be criticized for doing so for profits.
They already manufacture the Mac Pro here. They aren’t doing that because profits are better. Why not start the process of building the iMac here? There are other products that are candidates to manufacture here. Consider the Apple TV, laptops, AirPods to name some that could be made here.
With the argument that you are making, every publicly traded company that manufactures in the U.S. is opening itself up to shareholder lawsuits. Perhaps there is value to shareholders when a company makes a product here.
It is within Apple’s ability to do something like this. Anyone of the previous posts could be correct. It is my opinion that Trump is exaggerating what he has heard in discussions. He wants to bring jobs back to the U.S. He especially wants manufacturing jobs to return. No one could possibly think this is a bad idea or that there are sinister motives behind this.
As far as Apple’s interests go; it would be a public relations fiasco for them to flat out say they don’t want manufacturing of their products done here. It would also be a disaster for them to say that Americans are not capable. If Apple were to simply take the position that they are going to manufacture wherever it brings the highest profit, they would open themselves to public criticism. They are criticized for their avoidance of taxes as it is. Simply put, Apple has the profit margins to manufacture here. The question is their willingness to use a few points of that profit to invest in U.S. jobs and taxes. Or should they just keep pouring into the pockets of investors and an ever growing overseas bank account?
Trump knows just how to use this kind of public leverage. I for one will not be critical of his doing this. If it doesn’t work we all can choose who to blame.
Cook has, in not so many words, said we can’t do it here. It’s not about the workers themselves, it’s the amount of workers and engineers needed. It s the logistics of assembling millions upon millions of phones. China has literally set up a manufacturing Disney World there. How do we compete with that?
Expecting Apple to flip a switch and start making iPhones here is not reasonable. It is not the point that I am making. But Apple can certainly do something to begin manufacturing products here. Simply saying we don’t have the infrastructure isn’t an argument against rebuilding that capability.
It is refreshing to see concern at the presidential level for bringing jobs to America again. It has been a long time since we heard a president actively and proudly touting American citizens making iPhones.
It’s not going to be a matter of opinion. 4 years will go by and we will see if it happens, or is realistically on track to happen. If so, that’s awesome. If not, then we will know this was all talk.
Until then, let’s keep fighting for AMERICA. I’m fine with other countries vying for their interests too. I expect that. It’s good. I’m just glad we finally have someone proudly vying for American manufacturing.
Call me skeptical – like marcsten. Does anyone really believe Tim Cook would share Apple’s future plans with Trump?
Think about it – a company that places such an emphasis on secrecy…and a guy that can’t keep his mouth shut or control his twitter finger.
No, my guess is this is Pumpkinhead’s way of trying to put pressure on Apple to do what he just said they would, because now if they don’t he can come back and lie a second time by saying that Tim Cook/Apple “betrayed” him and the US by failing to deliver on his promise. A promise that was likely never made in the first place, but hey…
One of the plants will make the bigly iPhone
Apple will move jobs here when and only when it makes sense for Apple. At the moment, it doesn’t. If the federal government wants to hand out corporate welfare checks, maybe it will in the future. Or it could be like Trump’s Carrier jobs, which were mostly a lie. We’ll have to wait and see.