Apple has been scrambling to deal with the tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump in early April. The company has taken steps ranging from cargo flights full of phones to ramping up production in countries without high tariffs.
iPhone production in India is on the rise to meet the large number of phones needed when the next iPhone comes out in the fall, but it appears that Trump isn't a fan of the move. Trump was speaking at a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar, when the subject of Apple and its shifting production of the iPhone came up.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said on May 15, according to CNBC. “I said to him, ‘My friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India.’ I don’t want you building in India.”
The $500 billion Trump is referring to is the investment in the U.S. that Apple committed to back in February.
“I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim look, we treated you really good, we put up with all the plants that you build in China for years, now you got build us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves ... we want you to build here,'" the president said.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for a statement on Trump's comment.
Apple's tariff problem
It comes as no surprise that the tariffs could have a big impact on the price of an iPhone. An iPhone 16 Pro Max with 1 TB of storage could easily cost more than $2,000, while manufacturing an iPhone in the U.S. could push the price of the phone to more than $3,000.
While moving production of the iPhone to the U.S. is unlikely, Apple's partner for its chips, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), has already begun chip production in Arizona as a way to avoid dealing with potential tariffs. However, that move may still lead to a price increase due to the higher costs of manufacturing in the U.S.
Even with the current freeze on tariffs across the board that included smartphones, and a reduction of tariffs on China that was announced earlier in the week, Apple is reportedly evaluating whether to raise the price of iPhones, according to the Wall Street Journal. The report cites sources who say that the company is looking to increase the price tag due to the new features and design of the next iPhone.
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