Donald Trump demands iPhones be made in the US – but is it even possible?

President Donald Trump has demanded that iPhones be manufactured in the US, or threatened to slap Apple with a new tariff.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump wrote that ‘I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else’.

‘If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.,’ he wrote.

Fulfilling Trump’s demand is easier said than done.

Where are iPhones made?

As their packages denote, iPhones are designed in California. However, they are not manufactured or built there.

For the past 15 years, Apple has made most of its iPhones in China, where the US company has enjoyed lower labor costs. Apple has also been working to shift its supply chain to other countries including India, Vietnam and the US.

Various parts of iPhones are made in different nations, and suppliers for Apple often have locations in multiple countries. For example, Bosch Sensortech, which supplies accelerometers for iPhones, is based in Germany and has plants in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the US. The cameras are made by Sony, which is based in Japan and has facilities in dozens of countries.

Apple makes more than 80% of its items in China, and they are now subject to a 145% tariff when imported into the US.

Why can’t they be made in the US?

Experts say that iPhones would cost substantially more if they were made in America.

When Trump made his wide-ranging tariffs announcement on April 2, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives estimated that iPhones would cost $3,500 apiece and that it would cost Apple $30billion over a few years to relocate just 10% of its supply chain to the US.

On Thursday, Bank of America Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan opined that the currently $1,199 iPhone 16 Pro could be priced at $1,500, taking into account higher labor costs.

Beside higher prices for consumers, there are logistical hurdles. Apple would have to build and pay a workforce in the US, and front the cost of tariffs on parts imported to the US for assembling its iPhones at home.

‘It’s just not a reality that on the time frame of imposing tariffs that this is going to shift manufacturing here,’ Counterpoint Research’s research director Jeff Fieldhack told CNBC.

‘It’s pie in the sky.’

Can Trump force Apple to comply?

Whether the US president can impose tariffs on a particular company for not making a product in America is unclear and likely open to legal challenges.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended Trump’s tariff warnings, saying the president wants to ‘light a fire’ under Apple to revive manufacturing in the US.

‘Again, the president is trying to bring back precision manufacturing to the US,’ Bessent said on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom on Friday.

‘And I think that one of our greatest vulnerabilities is this external production, especially in semiconductors, and a large part of Apple’s components are in semiconductors, so we would like to have Apple help us make the semiconductor supply chain more secure.’

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