Donald Trump is convinced that Apple can move iPhone production to the US. The White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, says the country has the workforce and resources to support it. Leavitt points out that if Apple didn’t think the US was capable, they wouldn’t be investing $500 billion here.
A New York Times reporter asked Leavitt directly if Trump believes iPhone production can be moved to the US. She replied, “Yes, he thinks we have the labor, personnel, and resources to make it happen.”
However, some analysts disagree. They point out that Apple’s investment plans aren’t necessarily a sign of a new strategy. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have said in the past that producing iPhones in the US is almost impossible.
According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, Jobs met with President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2011. Jobs explained that the US lacks the 30,000 trained engineers needed to support production. China, on the other hand, has over 700,000 engineers available.
Tim Cook has also spoken about the challenges of producing iPhones in the US. In 2017, he said, “The reason companies come to China is for the skills and the scale of the workforce.” He added that even arranging a meeting with tooling engineers in the US is difficult, while in China, you can fill multiple football fields with them.
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