Trump Tells Apple CEO To Avoid Manufacturing in India (livemint.com)
- Reference: 0177519751
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/15/0832215/trump-tells-apple-ceo-to-avoid-manufacturing-in-india
- Source link: http://livemint.com/economy/trump-tells-apple-ceo-to-stay-out-of-india-we-re-not-interested-india-can-take-care-of-itself-11747294553948.html
"I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said during his state visit to Qatar, referring to the Apple chief executive. "He is building all over India. I don't want you building in India. India can take care of itself."
Apple has significantly increased its Indian manufacturing footprint, assembling $22 billion worth of iPhones in India during the 12 months through March. Apple said earlier this month a majority of its devices shipped into the U.S. in the June quarter will [1]originate in India and Vietnam .
[1] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/05/01/235234/apple-says-most-of-its-devices-shipped-into-us-will-be-from-india-vietnam
"Small government" indeed. (Score:4)
> "He is building all over India. I don't want you building in India."
Interesting. Imagine the uproar of a Democrat President tried to dictate to private businesses who they could partner with for manufacturing.
Re: (Score:2)
It's all part of the 5 year economic plan you see. Democrats are opposed to state based command economies. They only want to let the private companies make their own decisions.
Pot, Kettle, Black (Score:2)
Why is Trump telling Apple to bot use overseas labor when Trump is the guy who has all his merch made in China? If I didn't know any better (and I don't) then I would say he's a massive hypocrite (because he is).
Re: (Score:2)
Even he will probably have to move his merch production to some other country besides China, depending on the conclusion of the tariff tiff. Meanwhile, you're asking the wrong question.
Why is Trump warning Apple not to use India, without mentioning any other country that they use (such as Vietnam)? Is he expecting India to be embroiled in a protracted war with Pakistan?
Re: (Score:2)
He's not a hypocrite, he just likes RUMP.
[1]https://www.kwtx.com/2025/05/1... [kwtx.com]
[1] https://www.kwtx.com/2025/05/14/rump-customers-upset-with-missing-t-trump-branded-watch-that-cost-640/
Economic illiterate (Score:2)
An Indian employee doing a mind numbingly boring job on a production line earns $3 per hour? Even the dumbest high school drop out is going to cost $30 per hour with the laws designed to protect workers. So which is it that Trump wants?
For US citizens to pay more for their Apple tech than any other country in the world?
For Apple to charge the same but make no profit and go out of business?
To cut all US worker protections and turn the country into a 3rd world country paying workers $3 an hour?
One or
Re: (Score:2)
Apple products are so expensive that going from $3/hr to $30/hr wouldn't move the peg much. Also there are still places in the US paying $15-$20 for low level manufacturing/warehouse work. Chamber of Commerce types love that shit. Competitive wages!
Re: Economic illiterate (Score:2)
What are you talking about? Their current price has nothing to do with it. Higher costs to manufacture will be recouped one way or another.
Re: Economic illiterate (Score:2)
One thing to remember is even if the wage paid is $15/hr in the US any full time employment comes with a host of other taxes and obligations that are invisible to the employee but real to the company. When I've been involved in hiring the rule of thumb I was given was take the base salary and assume total cost to the company is 150% to 200% of that.
It's one of the reasons gig work is pushed so hard, you can circumvent a lot of that and push it back on the employee.
Uncertainty (Score:2)
kills all investments. Nobody wants to build factories for the US market anywhere now: If the tariffs are there to stay, you must build them in the US, but if they are removed before your factory is up and running, you will have a too expensive manufacturing in the US. So everybody wants. Except businesses who don't care about the US market anyway, they will just try to avoid US suppliers from now on. It is basically a loose-loose strategy for the US right now.
Re: Uncertainty (Score:2)
Damn: "Everybody waits" became "Everybody wants". On Reddit you edit your comments...
Tramp is communist. (Score:1)
Change my mind, but Tramp is communist. He's doing everything against the free market.
Re: Tramp is communist. (Score:2)
Conservatives believe in free markets while they think they are so brilliant they will always win in it. Then they lose and the story changes.
Re: (Score:2)
No, he's an authoritarian with fascist leanings. Authoritarians and fascists have never had any hesitation in ordering companies to do things.
The Little People (Score:2)
> Trump Tells Apple CEO To Avoid Manufacturing in India.
I just had a meeting, with Tim Apple, and we're going to bring back jobs, lots of jobs, screwing those little screws into iPhones, a bigly beautiful flood of minimum wage jobs, y'know, for the little people - that kind of thing is going to come to America now, lots of it, more of it than anything else ever, in history. Then, when the little people have screwed screws into iPhones for 12 hours, they can take a night shift at McDonalds and then work all weekend at Chick-Fil-A just to put food on the table. It
Re: (Score:2)
> work all weekend at Chick-Fil-A
Tell us you're a foreign troll without saying it directly.
Good jorb, don (Score:2)
Won't it be ironic if the US president kills the most valuable US business?
Re: (Score:2)
> Won't it be ironic if the US president kills the most valuable US business?
> Apple has significantly increased its Indian manufacturing footprint, assembling $22 billion worth of iPhones in India during the 12 months through March..
One does not pull $22 billion worth of manufactured goods out of ones ass overnight. Or since Inauguration Day, 2025. Not a damn thing DJT has ever said or done, created Apple manufacturing in India. Which has clearly been going on for a while.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the country that practically invented clickbait bullshit, decided to start remembering what is actually valuable instead of perpetuating clickbait bullshit?
Re: (Score:2)
So what is actually valuable in your esteemed opinion?
Obviously what is actually valuable to Apple is to be able to produce its trinkets where the costs are minimal and the output quantities can satisfy their market demand.
Re: (Score:2)
> Only China then.
That's what Tim Cook said himself a while ago. Has anything changed since then to change his opinion, what do you think?
Re: (Score:2)
Let me preface this by saying there is no way Apple with get killed by this.
> One does not pull $22 billion worth of manufactured goods out of ones ass overnight. Or since Inauguration Day, 2025.
Guess when these decisions happened and who was president then: [1]https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]
And now again Apple is expanding in India with Donnie boy being president again.
> Not a damn thing DJT has ever said or done, created Apple manufacturing in India.
Actually, yeah he kind of did. By setting off a trade war wit
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/technology/exclusive-foxconn-to-begin-assembling-top-end-apple-iphones-in-india-in-2019--idUSKCN1OQ0M2/
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, India has been, and still is mostly, very protectionist.
Re: (Score:2)
Well that's the typical unintended consequences. Placing punitive tariffs on china was never going to force manufacturing back to the US, it was only ever going to bump it to the next cheapest country.
You'd need to have punitive tariffs on *ALL* countries where manufacturing is significantly cheaper than the US.
And even if final manufacturing takes place in the US, many of the parts still come from other countries so you'd have not only the higher assembly costs but you'd also still be hit with tariffs on t
Re: (Score:2)
The funniest thing is all the MAGA whining about everything being communist, until the 34 time felon starts giving companies direct orders with the threat of retaliation if they don't comply.
Re: (Score:2)
Conservatism is not about "sharing", it is about keeping what's yours and getting more, never mind the direct or the opportunity costs. Therefore this isn't technically "Communism", it is its antithesis, the plain old fascism. Or, as the popular slogan once said, "In a Capitalist society, a man is exploited by his fellow man. In a Communist society, it is the other way around".
But I have a question - are the conservative MAGATs so different from their previous incarnations as teabaggers, neocons, reaganites
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't you hear? The President has a pen, and he has a phone.
Oh, right, you think it's (D)ifferent when the first president orders the assassination of an American citizen via drone strike. But where is the threat of retaliation in the Apple case? I don't see it.