President Trump threatens Apple and the EU with tariffs
President Donald Trump has rekindled trade tensions with consecutive social media posts targeting the European Union and Apple.
iPhones are always expensive, but experts agree that new tariff environments and pressures from President Donald Trump and that they are likely to raise prices for them in the US.
“I have informed Tim Cook a long time ago that I expect an iPhone sold in the United States to be manufactured and built in the United States rather than India. Otherwise, you will have to pay at least 25% tariffs to the United States.”
However, experts disagree with how much price increases will occur from customs duties and how long it will take for Apple to start a manufactured product in the US.
How much does an iPhone cost?
Dan Ives, global head of technology research at financial services firm Wedbush Securities, estimates that IPHONE can operate consumers $2,300 when taking tariffs into account. It’s a huge increase from Apple’s latest model’s $1,199 price tag, far from $3,500, but estimates it will run consumers if it was made in the US.
Drew Dellon, who leads geopolitical dynamics practices at global strategic and management consulting firm Kearney, said the price rise of between $100 and $200 after tariffs are more realistic.
“If I put myself in apple shoes, I’d be too worried about mutual tariffs given that they’re said to be largely exempt from them,” DeLong says, and is interested in continuing US investigations of imported semiconductors.
If Apple moves production to the US, Delong said it has energy and cost and availability for skilled workers to consider. In this scenario, potential tax cuts and deregulation laws could also affect the company’s margins for the coming years, he said.
Will Apple move production to the US?
For Ives, the idea for an iPhone produced in the US is “a fairy tale that is not viable.” He said he realistically put Apple over five to ten years to move production to the US.
While Apple has pledged to invest $500 billion in the US over the next four years, Ives said the investment is primarily in AI-driven initiatives.
“With the upside-down cost model required for such initiatives and supply chain logistics like Hercules, there is no chance that iPhone production will start to occur in the US in the near future,” Ives wrote in a memo.
DeLong said it won’t necessarily take Apple to bring online sites in the US, citing its plans to open a server manufacturing facility that plays a key role in powering Apple Intelligence in Houston, Texas in 2026.
“I can tell you from anecdotal conversations with people close to the administration. They’ve been hoping for a project over the last four years,” Deron said.
Trump claimed during his first administration that Apple CEO Tim Cook had pledged to build three plants in the US at the time, and the president granted the company tariff exemption, but multiple media outlets claimed that the company built a Zero Smartphone Factory in the US in its first four years.
Apple did not respond to USA requests for comment.
How can Trump target apples?
In April, the Trump administration issued a mutual smartphone tariff exemption through a presidential memo that clarified its executive order and updated guidance from US customs and border protection.
Apple had already planned to move US-bound iPhone production from China to India to reduce tariff effects. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a recent revenue call that the company aims to sell IPHONE imported from India and sold in the US by the end of this year.
Nicholas Guggenberger, a law professor at the University of Houston, said Trump’s comments on Trump’s truth serve as an announcement of his intention to do something, not formal policy.
“It’s like the president is giving a speech and making an announcement of a new policy or intent to implement the policy,” Guggenberger said. “He still needs to resort to formal channels.”
Perhaps the easiest way for Trump to make Apple pay more tariffs on iPhones is for the administration to drop all the mutual tariff exemptions on smartphones together, he said.
However, if Trump wants to target Apple specifically, Guggenberger said the president could only impose tariffs on smartphones from India, where Apple plans to manufacture most of the products it engages in the US.
Both strategies affect other phone makers.
Reach Rachel Barber at rbarber@usatoday.com Follow her at x @rachelbarber_
Contribution: Reuters
