We’re used to seeing Donald Trump make all sorts of wild statements, and on Tuesday he delivered. Again. He said in an interview that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him to tell him that Apple is going forward with plans to make three “big, big, big” plans. Before you get excited about Apple bringing iPhone manufacturing jobs to the States, you should remember who made these claims. And that Apple is yet to comment on the matter.
That said, it’s not entirely a surprise to see Apple stay quiet on the news about its future plans. It may be that Apple is indeed planning to build a bunch of factories in the US. Apple did commit to investing in US manufacturing, but it never said how it’ll do it.
The company may choose to support some of its partners to build plants in the US, with Foxconn being one of the prominent Asian enterprises that are looking at investing in the US — Foxconn is also Apple’s main iPhone manufacturer.
Apple already committed to invest $2 billion in ventures that will invest in US-based manufacturing, but we’re far from seeing any results.
The iPhone maker does make the Mac Pro in the US, but that’s hardly the kind of “big, big, big” operation Trump is trumpeting right now.
Even if it’s not saying anything about Trump’s comments, Apple must be interested in working with the administration for at least one reason, and that’s repatriating some its cash hoard from overseas without paying too much in taxes.
Foxconn, meanwhile, wants to invest some $7 billion in US facilities according to previous reports. An USA Today story from earlier this week said that Foxconn is close to announcing a major plant project for Wisconsin that would come with huge incentives including tax breaks for the company.
But that doesn’t mean we should trust anything Trump has to say about Apple, jobs, and his role in making it all happen, as long as Apple isn’t saying anything.
At the end of the day, this may be just another Trump trick, a lie, an uninformed opinion launched into the wild, or simply populist rhetoric.
