Trump threatens to impose 25% tariffs on Apple

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Tuesday the Trump administration doesn’t want to harm Apple with tariffs. Hassett’s remarks came after Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Apple for iPhones made outside the U.S.

The American economist noted that everybody is trying to make it seem like a catastrophe if there’s a tiny little tariff on them to try to negotiate down the levies. He believes they’ll see the outcome, but the administration doesn’t want to harm Apple.

Trump threatens to impose 25% tariffs on Apple

Did Trump eat a bad prawn with his crypto mates last night? Back on his mobile threathening 50% tariffs on Europe and 25% on Apple if iphones are not made in the US.

— Ole S Hansen (@Ole_S_Hansen) May 23, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on May 23 that he expects Apple’s iPhones that will be sold in the U.S. to be manufactured and built in the country, not India or anyplace else. Trump warned that if Tim Cook of Apple doesn’t comply, the company must pay a tariff of at least 25% to the U.S.

Early last month, Trump argued that the U.S. has the workforce and the resources to build iPhones in the U.S., but nobody at Apple has come out to back that claim. Former President Barack Obama asked the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs about making an iPhone in the U.S., and he said at a dinner with Obama in 2011, “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”

Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan revealed in April that the iPhone 16 Pro, which is currently priced at $1.199, could increase by 25% based on labor costs alone.

Estimates would make it a roughly $1,500 device. Wedbush’s Dan Ives pegged a U.S. iPhone’s price at $3,500 shortly after Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement. Ives also estimated that Apple would need to spend $30 billion over three years to move 10% of its supply chain to the U.S.

“If you think that Apple has a factory some place that’s got a set number of iPhones that it produces and it needs to sell them no matter what, then Apple will bear those tariffs, not consumers, because it’s an elastic supply.”

-Kevin Hassett, Director of the U.S. National Economic Council.

Trump’s threats came after Apple reported investing $1.5 billion into manufacturing in India through its long-time manufacturer Foxconn to shift iPhone production away from China. Trump revealed his discontent over the move during last week’s Middle East tour.

Trump spotlights Apple’s supply chain

In his new book, The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, Journalist Paul McGee argues that Apple’s massive foreign investment and involvement in China were necessary in transforming the country’s economy and tech sector. He also added that Apple contractors like Foxconn passed on tech expertise to Chinese competitors like Huawei.

The iPhone contractor has come under scrutiny for worker conditions over the years, including in 2011, when the company installed nets around some of its buildings after a rash of worker suicides. Oversight groups also argued that Foxconn’s work is grueling and that workers are pressured into working overtime. 

Apple’s CEO mentioned in a 2017 interview that another issue is that American workers don’t have the necessary skills. Cook acknowledged there aren’t enough tooling engineers in the U.S. According to him, those engineers work on and configure the machines that take the sophisticated designs from Apple, which come in the form of computer files, and transform them into physical objects.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced a $10 billion investment from Foxconn to build plants in Wisconsin in 2017. The iPhone maker was never officially attached to Foxconn’s Wisconsin plant, but that didn’t hinder Trump from claiming Apple would build three big plants in the U.S.

Mohan noted that even if iPhones could be assembled in America, much of what goes into an iPhone comes from countries around the world, all of which the U.S. has imposed tariffs on.

Most iPhones are made in Asia; TSMC manufactures their processor in Taiwan, the display is produced by South Korean companies such as LG or Samsung, and the majority of other components are made in China. Mohan believes Apple will face tariffs on most parts unless it can secure waivers for individual parts.

KEY Difference Wire helps crypto brands break through and dominate headlines fast