As the United States prepares to enact a new wave of tariffs on Chinese imports, President Donald Trump’s administration has reiterated its belief that American manufacturing can absorb production previously outsourced abroad – including the assembly of Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone.
Speaking on Monday evening, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the feasibility of relocating iPhone production to the United States, suggesting that Apple’s recently announced $500 billion investment in domestic operations was a signal of confidence in US manufacturing capabilities.
“If Apple didn’t think the United States could do it, they probably wouldn’t have put up that big chunk of change,” Leavitt said during a press briefing, responding to questions about the broader economic impact of the new tariffs. The administration has framed the tariffs, which include a 104 percent duty on Chinese electronics, as a strategic move to incentivise domestic production and reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains.
The assertion comes days after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the tariffs would prompt a return of manufacturing jobs to the United States, invoking imagery of “millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones”.
Pressed by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman on whether President Trump genuinely believed iPhone production could be relocated to American soil, Leavitt replied, “Absolutely. He believes we have the labour, we have the workforce, we have the resources to do it.”
However, these claims run counter to longstanding positions expressed by Apple executives, including late co-founder Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook, who have repeatedly argued that the complexity of iPhone manufacturing makes it unfeasible to shift such operations to the United States at scale.
According to Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Steve Jobs, the Apple founder personally told President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2011 that America lacked the scale and engineering expertise required to support Apple’s supply chain needs. Jobs is quoted as saying the US would need to produce 30,000 mid-level engineers to support a 700,000-strong factory workforce, a level of skilled labour he believed was not available domestically.
Tim Cook echoed this sentiment in 2017 at Fortune Magazine’s Global Forum, noting that China’s dominance in electronics production was no longer driven by labour costs but by its concentration of specialised skillsets.
“The truth is China stopped being the low labour cost country many years ago… the reason [to manufacture in China] is because of the skill and the quantity of skill in one location,” Cook said. “In the US, you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I’m not sure we could fill the room – in China you could fill multiple football fields.”
While Apple has invested significantly in its US operations, including manufacturing facilities, data centres, and a growing presence in semiconductor design, most of its high-volume assembly still takes place in China through subcontractors such as Foxconn and Pegatron. Analysts note that the company’s $500 billion investment plan, cited by the White House, may reflect a continuation of long-term spending trends rather than a fundamental shift in supply chain strategy.
According to market research firm TechInsights, the level of vertical integration and regional specialisation present in China’s electronics manufacturing sector would take years – if not decades – to replicate in the United States, even with strong political and financial incentives.
The Trump administration’s tariff policy, which takes effect after midnight, has already drawn criticism from major technology firms, trade groups, and economists, who warn that the additional costs are likely to be passed on to consumers and could disrupt global supply chains. Apple has not issued a public statement on the matter, but company executives have previously lobbied against tariffs, citing their potential to damage competitiveness and limit access to key components.
In Congress, reaction to the administration’s comments has been divided along party lines, with Republicans largely supportive of the tariffs as a means of promoting economic nationalism, while Democrats have questioned both the efficacy and timing of the measures. Several industry leaders have expressed scepticism regarding the notion of a large-scale reshoring of iPhone production, pointing to high infrastructure costs, a shortage of skilled labour, and logistical hurdles.
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