Apple Will Move Manufacturing From Mexico To The US, Trump Claims

Since Donald Trump’s second arrival at the White House, several big tech companies—both American and foreign—have taken steps to win his favor. In some cases, these firms have clashed with the new US president in the past. Apple is not among those that have had the most clashes with him, but it is trying to avoid problems. Recently, Trump said that Tim Cook had promised to move the manufacturing of Apple products from Mexico to the United States.

Apple is one of the companies that has been trying to diversify its production chain in recent years. The trade war between the United States and China has caused big tech companies to prepare for a potential escalation in trade restrictions that could also affect them. After all, they carry out most of their product manufacturing in China.

Apple CEO allegedly promised Donald Trump to move manufacturing from Mexico to the US

According to Trump, Apple has “stopped two plants in Mexico” and will move the manufacturing to the United States. Apple has not officially confirmed anything about this, although Trump said that the plans involve “very big numbers—you have to speak to him [Tim Cook, CEO of Apple]. I assume they’re going to announce it at some point.” There are also no details on what type of products these plants in Mexico make. However, some sources speculate that they may be Foxconn factories, which provide some components for iPhones and other Apple products.

The news comes after a meeting between Donald Trump and Tim Cook this week. The Apple CEO has had some nods for Trump since his victory in the last US presidential race. Both had already met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion a few weeks ago to discuss certain things. Tim Cook was also at the presidential inauguration on January 20.

Apple had already received “preferential treatment” from Trump during his first term. The company was granted certain tax exemptions for its operations. However, Trump does not seem to want to apply any exceptions this time regarding upcoming tariffs.

You could say that Apple is among the big tech companies that have had the fewest clashes with Trump. Among the few episodes worth mentioning are the US president’s criticism of the firm for not collaborating better with law enforcement. In other words, Trump wanted Apple to leave a backdoor in iOS that would facilitate access to private data for investigation into criminal acts. Apple never agreed to this, but recently the company gave in to the UK government on something similar.