Trump Wants Apple to Stay in U.S., Opposes iPhone Shift to India

US President Donald Trump stated he’s asked Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook to stop building factories in India, referring to the iPhone maker's plans to move its fabrication beyond China.

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of his conversation with the Apple chief executive officer in Qatar, where he’s on a state visit. “He is building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.” At the end of their discussion, Trump said Apple will be “upping their production in the United States.”

"We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves," the US President said.

India has one of the highest tariff barriers in the world, and it’s very hard to sell American products in the most populous country on the planet, Trump said. However, he added, India has made an offer, dropping tariffs on US goods as the Asian nation seeks an agreement on tariffs for imports.

The president's comments disrupt Apple's plans to source most of its US iPhone supply from India by the end of next year, in a strategy aimed at reducing Apple's reliance on China due to tariff and geopolitical pressures. Currently, the company makes most of its iPhones in China and has no smartphone manufacturing in the US.

Apple and its suppliers have accelerated a shift away from the world's No. 2 economy after the entire process was instigated by the fierce Covid lockdowns, which sparked production issues at its largest plant.  In the year through March, Apple assembled approximately $22 billion worth of iPhones in India, a nearly 60% increase in production compared to the prior year.