With shares of Apple trading at a level we haven’t seen since 2017, Donald Trump at a press conference yesterday confidently said that Apple is “going to be fine.” Oddly enough, though perhaps not all that surprising, Trump also claimed that shares of Apple have gone up “hundreds of percent” since he became president.
When asked if he was concerned about Apple shares slumping, Trump answered: “No, I’m not. I mean, look, they’ve gone up a lot. You know, they’ve gone up hundreds of percent since [I’ve become] president. Apple was at a number that was incredible, and they’re going to be fine.”
The thing is, Trump’s assertion here is unabashedly false and easily disproven.
When Trump took the oath of office in late January of 2017, Apple shares opened at $120.45. And with shares of Apple now trading at 148.26, Apple’s stock price has gone up by 23% over the last two years. At its peak, when Apple shares were trading at $232 levels, the price had appreciated by 92%, an impressive gain to be sure, but certainly not in the “hundreds of percent” range.
Numbers aside, Trump once again brought up the notion that Apple might want to consider manufacturing iPhones in the United States.
“Don’t forget, Apple makes their products in China,” Trump said. “I told Tim Cook, a friend of mine, make your product in the US. Build those big, beautiful plants that go on for miles. Build those plants in the US. I like that even better…China is the biggest beneficiary of Apple.”
“My focus is the United States,” Trump later added. “I want to get those companies to come back. I want Apple to make their iPhones and all of the great things that they make in the United States.”
Of course, the notion of Apple manufacturing the iPhone in the United States isn’t all that realistic. Not only is it cheaper to manufacture the iPhone in China, the logistics make the entire process much more seamless.
To this point, an anonymous Apple executive a few years back relayed the following about the iPhone manufacturing process.
“The entire supply chain is in China now,” the executive said. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”
