President Donald Trump is pressuring Apple (AAPL) to pull back from India and move production to the U.S., telling CEO Tim Cook he doesn’t want iPhones “built in India.”
“I said, ‘Tim, don’t do that,’” Trump said Thursday in Qatar. “India can take care of themselves.” The remarks came just weeks after the administration rolled out sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, which encouraged Apple to shift more production to India.
Now policy whiplash and stray remarks are once again putting the world’s largest company and its highly complex supply chain under pressure.
Why Apple recently shifted to India
In recent weeks, Apple moved to produce more iPhones in India, potentially as much as 25% of total production. The company already assembled $22 billion worth of iPhones in India last year and exported $17.5 billion’ worth of those devices abroad.
Apple has even started assembling its high-end Pro models in India, though production is not yet near scale. The vast majority of iPhones are still made in China, but that balance has showed signs of shifting. Key suppliers like Foxconn (HNHPF), Tata, and Pegatron are expanding Indian operations as Apple’s needs emerge.
