Trump Slams Apple over Boosting Production in India

US President Donald Trump slammed Apple CEO Tim Cook’s decision to significantly boost the amount of iPhones it manufactures in India. He said it is a way of avoiding tariffs on products made in China.

Trump made comments about Apple’s India plans in Qatar, saying he had a little problem with Tim Cook, referencing the CEO’s plans to assemble all smartphones for the US market in India by end-2026, amounting to more than 60 million units. This would effectively more than double India’s current output.

“We are treating you really good, we put up all the plans you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India,” Trump told Cook. He added that in response, Apple planned to increase their production in the US, although this has not been confirmed by the company.

The President also appeared to hit out at Cook at an event in Riyadh this week when discussing Nvidia’s deal with Saudi AI venture Humain. Speaking to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on stage, Trump said: “Tim Cook isn’t here, but you are.” Apple did state in February that it planned to spend $500 billion in the US over Trump’s four-year term to manufacture chips and AI servers.