President Donald Trump surprised everyone yesterday when he told the Wall Street Journal[1] that Apple CEO Tim Cook told him Apple would build three factories in the U.S. It’s worth quoting Trump on this one:
“I spoke to [Tim Cook], he’s promised me three big plants — big, big, big,” he told the WSJ. “I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won’t consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward.”
We’ve reached out to Apple and haven’t heard back from them.
There are a few intriguing things with this quote. First, as John Gruber noted[2], why would Apple share news with Trump without either making an official announcement first or confirming Trump’s information?
Second, Apple doesn’t manufacture its own devices. Instead, the company relies on a wide array of suppliers or assemblers. The most famous one is probably Foxconn[3] as the company has been building more than a billion iPhones for the past ten years.
The Mac Pro is currently manufactured in Texas by Flextronics[4]. It’s the only Apple device made in the U.S. But the Mac Pro is nowhere near as popular as the iPhone — it’s easier to manufacture it in the U.S.
So maybe Trump was asking Apple to ask its suppliers to build plants in the U.S.? Coincidentally, CNBC reported[5] today that Foxconn was about to announce plans to build a factory in Wisconsin.
The timing would be perfect to back Trump’s narrative. But Foxconn also has a ton of other clients, such as Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and more. A Foxconn factory...
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