President Donald Trump’s administration had hoped that its series of tariffs on China would push Apple to begin manufacturing iPhones in the United States for the first time. However, this scenario seems unlikely, even with U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made products now reaching 145%. Apple has been manufacturing iPhones in China for nearly two decades, and shifting production to the U.S. would face several major obstacles.
One of the key challenges is the highly complex supply chain Apple has built over decades in China. Moving production to the U.S. would require building new factories, which could take years and cost billions of dollars. Additionally, such a move could drive the price of an iPhone from around $1,000 to more than $3,000, a price increase that would likely devastate sales of Apple’s flagship product.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, who tracks Apple closely, said that it is unlikely to happen before 2028, given the economic and logistical hurdles. “The concept of making iPhones in the U.S. is a non-starter,” he remarked. Apple has not publicly commented on the issue but is expected to address it during its quarterly earnings call on May 1. The topic is likely to come up given that Apple’s stock has fallen by 15% since Trump started increasing the tariffs on April 2, which has reduced the company’s market value by $500 billion.
Even with these rising tariffs, Apple has not immediately raised prices on its products, largely because its services division — which generated $96 billion last fiscal year — remains unaffected by the tariffs. Analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee noted that Apple’s large profit margins from services have allowed the company to absorb some of the costs associated with the tariffs, at least for now.
Earlier in the year, Apple attempted to appease Trump by pledging a $500 billion investment and promising to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2028. However, these plans do not involve iPhone production. Instead, Apple intends to fund a data center in Houston for artificial intelligence services.
Despite the pressure from Trump, Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed doubts about whether the U.S. has the necessary workforce to handle the labor-intensive task of manufacturing iPhones. In 2017, Cook said that while it would be possible to hold a meeting of tooling engineers in the U.S., the country might not have enough skilled workers for the assembly work needed. In contrast, China has a large labor pool with the necessary skills.
Previously, during Trump’s first term, he tried unsuccessfully to convince Apple to move its iPhone production to the U.S. However, the administration ultimately exempted the iPhone from tariffs during that period. This led Apple to begin manufacturing some of its iPhones in India and some products in Vietnam.
Trump also visited a Texas Apple plant in 2019, where Apple assembles some of its Mac computers. After the visit, Trump took credit for the plant’s opening, despite it having been established during Barack Obama’s presidency.
