President Trump says he’s finally gotten somewhere in his years-long crusade to get Apple to build more products in the US. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal today, Trump said that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him and committed to build “three big plants, beautiful plants” in the United States.
For now, there’s no detail beyond that. Apple declined to comment to the Journal and hasn’t responded to our own request for comment.
If Trump’s statement is correct, that’d be a big investment on Apple’s behalf and a significant change of pace. Right now, Apple only has Mac Pros manufactured in the US, and it hasn’t even committed to continuing that. Apple also generally prefers to work with outside suppliers, so it can source parts from multiple companies and shield itself from risk — such as when it turns out that an entire factory is worthless because its manufacturing method didn’t pan out.
That’s why it seems quite possible that Trump has some of the details wrong here. For instance, Cook may have said that Apple’s suppliers are building new factories in the US, rather than Apple itself. Apple recently invested $200 million in Corning, which supplies cover glass for iPhones, with the intention of supporting the company’s manufacturing efforts, already located in Kentucky. Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, is also said to be planning its first US factory. That factory may well produce products for Apple, though it wouldn’t be an Apple-owned factory.
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