2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump today held a rally at Liberty University in Virginia during which he spoke about his normal wide range of topics. This time, however, Trump brought Apple into his speech when discussing how to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States and away from countries like China.
Trump told the audience at Liberty University that to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States he would make Apple “build their damn computers and things in this country.” While this isn’t a bad idea, or even the first time it has been suggested, Trump didn’t offer any specifics on how he would force Apple to abruptly change its manufacturing (via Gizmodo).
We have such amazing people in this country: smart, sharp, energetic, they’re amazing,” Trump said. “I was saying make America great again, and I actually think we can say now, and I really believe this, we’re gonna get things coming… we’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.”
There’s currently no legal reason as to why Apple would have to bring all of its manufacturing stateside under a Trump presidency, although factors like incentives and tax breaks for the company could be offered. Nevertheless, Trump didn’t detail his plans for forcing Apple to manufacture in the United States at all.
During 60 Minutes last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained that the reason Apple manufacturers is not the lower wages, but rather the skills that those workers possess. Cook noted of how China put an enormous focus on manufacturing and vocational skills.
“China put an enormous focus on manufacturing. The U.S., over time, began to stop having as many vocational kind of skills. I mean, you can take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in a room that we’re currently sitting in. In China, you would have to have multiple football fields.”
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Can this douchebag just f*** off already?
He’s going to say or do the wrong thing to alienate the wrong group of people. It will be quite telling after this first round of voting if he’s here to stay.
“He’s going to say or do the wrong thing to alienate the wrong group of people.”
This is the first Trump-related news you’ve read in the last six months, isn’t it?
Ok, this guys should just go suck an egg in one corner already, what the heck are they involving Apple now? “Computer and things” you don’t even know what they make!
Then Apple’s products will cost ten times more and no one will buy them and Apple will pay much less taxes.
Nonsense.
“Donald Trump says he will force Apple to build its “computers and things” in the United States”
Obviously, this means that everyone should vote for anyone but Donald Trump!
Trump is a clown, but he is not funny. He is pathetic.
Your reading comprehension sucks. You even quoted him and you still can’t get it right, get being the operative word. He said “we’re gonna GET Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.” not FORCE. Of course the difference between “force” and “get” may be a too nuanced for you.
They’d also be of less quality.
I’m curious, why would they be of lesser quality? I’d imagine it to be of better quality due to the higher standards.
One reason could be that the US lacks the infrastructure to produce at the scale that China can, so production might be rushed just to meet the incredible amount of supply (if it’s even possible to meet it)
I bet some really intelligent comments will come out of this article about Donald Trump. Everybody will totally be civilized and respectful to eachother. /s
Where is the Mac Pro made again?
Can Apple please respond to this, and explain to him how the economy works, or any tech company for that matter? Yes, we may lose jobs, but that’s only for manufacturing, something robots will replace in 10-15 years. Allowing China to specialize what they’re good at, and America at what they’re good at (code & design), will lead to cheaper phones and computers, which will lead to Globalization which is the fastest way to end poverty.
you had it all well up to “which is the fastest way to end poverty”.
No mate, it isn’t. Currently it is the fastest way to make deeply rich people deeply richer. And I mean the sort of deeply rich people who pull this planet’s strings.
Trump is knowingly and wilfully their puppet. He’s now just being brewed into your (US citizens’) minds as your new “leader”.
I agree with you but we don’t have to give up EVERYTHING, let the Chinese make manhole cover that’s fine, but we should keep the manufacturing of high tech product in house for the benefit of the American workers.
American already made the high tech products in house. Like Daniel said, the thinking job of designing and coding, not the production line.
Those who can’t fit in will just have to be smarter for their own survival.
Isn’t that the ideal world, where the need to survive in a changing world force people to adapt and become more competitive.
Everyone can have success and become billionaire if they are not lazy :P
I bet if Bernie sanders said that he wanted to bring apple’s manufacturing jobs back to the US everyone would praise him.
I think the outrage originates from Mr. Trumps own extensive use of foreign labor.
Red herring and probably not true.
But Sanders and Clinton are being taken seriously for their equally ridiculous claim that raising the minimum wage to $15/hr is a good idea and will guarantee people a living wage. The minimum wage was last raised in 2009, right in the middle of the last recession. The timing couldn’t have possibly been any worse, and it undoubtedly had at least some impact on the ridiculously slow recovery we’ve had over the past few years. Doubling it less than 10 years later would likely hit the lower class harder than anyone else, both in the form of lost jobs (more automation) and higher prices on stores who hire lots of low-wage workers (e.g. discount stores, grocers, small restaurants and chains) where those on low wages themselves are more likely to frequent.
@kpom1 Your comments seem to suggest that somehow by raising the minimum wage there will somehow magically be less labour required to run shops, factories and other businesses. Yes prices would rise but it would raise the current floor which benefits everyone in a society, unlike the current failed experiment in the United States of trickle down economics, which has shown only makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
If anything its the low skill, high paying jobs that would be more likely to be targeted by automation because of the cost effectiveness to the company, and these jobs would likely be targeted by automation regardless.
Driver! Stop the planet. Someone needs to get off.
I’m laughing so hard right now.
Hmm, mr Trump.
Will you supply the workers for iPhone and other apple products manufacturing?
lol.
Also, what reason do you have to bring manufacturing to the US?
Remember what happened with the Mac Pro.
Move along people, nothing to see here.
Don’t give any credence to what Trump says as time goes on he’ll obviously say and do anything to win himself the Republican nomination. Trump bashes China and Mexico manufacturing while he himself has manufactured many of his own products in both places! Shame, shame, shame on 9to5mac for giving this air head any more publicity than he’s already getting.
He also mentioned in his speech today that he likes China. He said he currently has several properties and more in China. But he believes we should stop outsourcing our jobs to China, which he is right about. We are losing jobs here because companies want to save money.
So the whole “do as I say not as I do” bit.
Kevin you should also disclaimer all your comments that you’re a “billion percent” Donald Trump supporter.
I also support Rubio and Carson, but I feel that Trump is needed to get this country back where it should be.
And where should the country be exactly? Under the leadership of someone who has filed bankruptcy (oops I mean his “companies” have filed bankruptcy) multiple times? Yeah. Trump is the epitome of financial discipline.
@applenthusias
” Under the leadership of someone who has filed bankruptcy (oops I mean his “companies” have filed bankruptcy) multiple times? Yeah. Trump is the epitome of financial discipline.”
And yet he’s still a multi-billionaire and you’re probably not. You see his multiple bankruptcies as a negative, I don’t. It shows he’s not afraid of taking risks in the face of even multiple failures, IOW he didn’t quit. That kind of non-quit attitude is what American was and should be built on. You can whatever negative you want regarding is viewpoints, be it political or non-political, one thing he is not, is a failure.
@Shameer Mulji
Unfortunately bankruptcy laws don’t apply to countries
Can you imagine the outrage of Trump if he gets told by Obama what to do with his business. LOL
I was at Libery University’s Convocation this morning hearing Trump speak. He was mentioning Apple as an example, along with Ford. He provided ways to bring Ford back to the United States earlier in his speech so it wasn’t necessary for him to repeat. He said that if Ford decided to build a factory in Mexico, he would negotiate with them by raising tariffs and taxes of moving parts, trucks and cars across the border. This would force Ford to stay in the country since it would be less expensive. He compared his decision to what Hillary Clinton and other candidates would do, which are funded by lobbyists. They would allow Ford to leave and take thousands of jobs with them with Ford would have been responsible (along with other companies) for their success. Trump also mentioned that all the money he’s using is his own and that lobbyists aren’t paying him. So he could really do whatever he wants.
Disclaimer: Kevin supports Donald Trump a “billion percent”.
All I’m saying is that 9to5Mac should get their facts straight before starting a political war against something taken out of context.
Maybe we can agree on one thing. 9to5mac should stay out of politics all together.
There’s an old saying: “Evil only wins when good stand still.” So on that note, why should any person or organization stay out of politics. You want to make a country great, get involved – not by sticking your head in the sand or up your a**.
Interesting that Trump thinks he could raise tariffs and taxes. The US is subject to NAFTA and I would be surprised if he could raise tariffs – but I have not read the details in many years. The US may have signed the Trans Pacific trade agreement by the end of 2017, so that could hobble tariff adjustments with any of the pacific countries. And to adjust taxes, I always understood required the assistance of congress and the senate. That’s a lot of people to convince.
But should he be successful and actually get the tariffs and taxes raised on those imports by Ford and Apple, you can bet there will be some major retaliation by other countries. That would set back international trade for decades.
Unless he has more detail of how to do all that, I say he’s just full of hot air. Or something else.
#don’tvotefortromp.
I really hate his idea and there is no way that Apple will move their manufacturing jobs from China to the U.S. I really hate Donald Trump and everything that he said during his presidential campaign.
People in China make less money that normal workers in the U.S. and “computers and things” doesn’t really make any sense.
Just chill everyone.
Everything Trump promises is either impossible, illegal, or unconstitutional.
That’s the case with most presidential candidates, and for that matter, with a lot of the proposals of the current and most recent former presidents.
Don’t you have a secret server holding classified and top secret emails somewhere to make you proud
I don’t want to vote for any of these a-holes. Can we clean the slate and bring in the next bunch?
your choices (and in every other “civilised” country) are very carefully vetted. Hell, in many other countries (cough) certain US agencies vet who’s gonna come into (being eligible for coming) power.
My next iMac will cost 12 grand yaaay
But then maybe Bernie Sanders will mandate a $100/hr minimum wage. Then we’ll all be rich! /s
Believe you can “drop the mic” on that one
Trump is smart. He’s a successful businessman. I bet he knows how global economy works and how 90% of what he’s proposing are pure BS.
And he also knows that pure BS generates publicity. And that there are more uneducated people who’d believe his BS than people who knows how the world works. That’s how he’s planning on getting elected.
I think you’re crediting him with a little *too* much intelligence
Yeah, well… good luck with that.
Apple is already moving manufacturing to the States though
I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing. However, I do agree that if someone like Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders said this, everyone would go nuts and say “OMG! That’s brilliant! That’s just what this country needs!” It’s like everyone’s stereo typed Donald Trump. Whatever he says is stupid because he’s Donald Trump.
FYI, I purchased the most recent 27″ iMac. It is labeled designed in Cupertino and built in the USA. Might as well create all the components here as well. I’m voting for Sanders but I do like Trump’s protectionist talk.
Correction: Assembled in the USA.
Didn’t realize the iMac was assembled in the US now as well. I would imagine the biggest reasons why the computers are starting to be assembled in the US are because the following.
1. They are a proportionally very low amount of Apple’s Sales (desktops even more so, compared to Notebooks)
2. They’re modular. So when something is pieced together improperly, they can just replace a part rather than a whole device.
Please elect this guy and we will have the most epic troll in the history of mankind.
If you look to Afghanistan and 90’s Balkans as examples of what you’d like your country to be, then hope Trump gets the nomination and then vote for him.
What planet are you from. Have you seen who runs Afghanestan and what takes place there. Do you want the best for America or not? Sure sounds like not.
Yeah Religious nut jobs, and Trump is….. oh wait….
You just get dumber and dumber.
Step back. He’s saying conceptually that he wants to get “jobs” back to America. He said that we’re going to get apple to start building…. That means, he wants job back in Amerca and is that such a bad thing in today’s world?
The only thing more lunatic than Trump himself are his supporters who believe this crap. They all profess to hate government, but would support a government that would force a PRIVATE business to manufacture things in a specific place.
The stupidity, hypocrisy, ignorance, and hate that surrounds every words vomited from this clown and his supporters is an embarrassment to the human race. Even worse, is they are proud of all it.
Force? How is he going to force Apple to transition their mfg to the US? Tax breaks? Threats?
Maybe tax breaks. Maybe import tariffs.
Rich Davis doesn’t understand so must not be possible……who knew.
He’s saying that with LOWER corporate taxes, it would make sense and easier for companies to come back….something Apple and any other company would love to have happen. You think managing a supply chain is easier in China….ah no.
It is easy to blame someone else. Why doesn’t the Trump family of brands start manufacturing their clothing lines in the US?
Someone remind him the United States IS NOT The Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.
He is not going to have absolute power or control.
On another topic (but still related), the U.S. relies on immigrants to harvest vegetables, as the many americans prefer to live off welfare rather than work on the fields. Much less work on a factory.
I had a Pontiac Boneville that had a sunroof leak problem (reported by many people). The problem was never fixed by the dealer. It turned out to be the drainage pipes were installed incorrectly, so the water would never drain. Some idiot at the assembly line didn’t do his job right.
At least the Chinese are hard working people and also use their brains while at it.
People please pay attention; years of feeding the same system has brought us to this point where this man has the audience he does. If you bought a faulty toaster on Black Friday, you’d turn around and take it back, no? So stop giving politics and politicians all the amnesty in the universe, yeah?
George Will said it perfectly in 2012 when he called Trump a “Bloviating Ignoramus”
So how would Stupid go about doing that?? He (Mr. Ugly) has SO many “good ideas”, none of which he can fully explained on how he would implement these silly ideas of his. Even IF he explains them, they all sounds like an ill-read person.
Wow! So what you’re telling me is that we are screwed with both Trump and Sanders? Trump will bring back the jobs and drive the costs of the products up to the point that they can’t compete. Sanders will force them to pay a 40% tax on their overseas money by bringing it back into the country, and also raise corporate taxes in a variety of other ways. How can our two most likely options be a couple of morons on opposite sides of the aisle?
Your reading comprehension sucks. You even quoted him and you still can’t get it right, get being the operative word. He said “we’re gonna GET Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.” not FORCE. Of course the difference between “force” and “get” may be a too nuanced for you.
Currently Trimp is seen as the clown of American politics. But if by some miracle he actually wins the US election, he’ll go from clown to potentially very dangerous.
‘Trimp’ (chimp?) Freudian slip only part maybe? I meant Trump…or did I?
http://www.businessinsider.com/you-simply-must-read-this-article-that-explains-why-apple-makes-iphones-in-china-and-why-the-us-is-screwed-2012-1?IR=T
Talk about misquoting!!! And I bet that most of the hate comments are based solely on the headline! Did anybody actually read what Trump said? Oh, and it’s a bit disingenuous to put “computers and things” in quotes, which gives the impression that the word “force” is also a quote. What he said is much different. Like you said at the very bottom, it’s about incentives, etc. And if people recall, Apple have themselves said they would like to do more manufacturing in the US. It’s not like Trump, were he president, would make laws to force companies to manufacture in the US.
I suppose before I get the hate. I’m not in favor of a Trump presidency, but the amount of lies and twistings of his words out there on the internet is shameful, and It’s sad that a site that I respect and come to for honest news would join in and stoop to this sort of link-baiting hating.
I was hoping for a rational comment somewhere in here.
Google Definitions:
Get – succeed in attaining, achieving, or experiencing; obtain
Force – coercion or compulsion, especially with the use or threat of violence
Regardless of the feasibility or opinions about Trump, what i read was a total misrepresentation of the quotes (and it seems that most commentators didn’t read past the headline) and clear intent, which would be to make it compelling for companies like apple to move jobs to the US. There is a fundamental difference between this and forcing them to do so. Oppressive words like “Force” and “Make” seem to be injected solely by the author…according to the quotes.
There are two issues which complicate this matter.
If Apple were forced to manufacture it’s iPhones on US soil, would that also apply to every component too? The facilities to produce integrated circuits, display screens and hardware are incredibly specialised and generally located outside of the US. Would sub assemblies also have to be built in the US? At what point would foreign parts be permissible? Trump might prefer that every nut and bolt should be built in the US, but there simply isn’t the workforce or the manufacturing capacity to do that in the US.
The second point is that I believe that Apple will one day be assembling iPhones on US soil, but not because of Trump. It’s actually quite a challenge to manage the massive workforce needed for iPhone assembly on the scale that Apple requires and the logistics of recruiting, housing and supporting such an immense number of people is formidable. I firmly believe that once fully robotic assembly becomes a practicality, Apple will embrace it and will build multiple factories around the globe to manufacture iPhones. It’s a solution that addresses many existing problems, but although it might satisfy Trump’s demands, it would do relatively little to create new jobs in the US. Multiple factories around the globe would also address the potential problem of having most of your manufacturing done in one place with the risk of disruption from political, geological, weather or transport related issues.
Looks like Apple Campus 3 will be built outside the US so thy can take the company overseas and end this nonsense. First the government wants a back door into our phones, now this.
I don’t know why I laughed when I saw Title and the posted Picture ! LOL
He’s funny & idiot.
How the chuff do you take a country with 300 million presumably reasonably intelligent people and end up with retards like Trump getting nominated.
So is he just going to “force” Apple to manufacture their products in the U.S.? What about Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Microsoft, Motorola, Google etc.?
A nice 30% tariff on all these high end electronic goods should do it…
Trump is the best thing to happen to the Democratic party since Sarah Palin.
We don’t need a bigot in office. If he is really elected this country will be in BIG trouble!
He didnt say so and this article is dishonest.
Interesting that after 12 hours of my comment awaiting approval from a moderator, it disappears. Let’s try this again. Original comment below.
Can someone please point me to where he said he would force Apple to build their computers and things in the US?
@ChanceHMiller – Did you actually watch the video of him saying what you just wrote an article about? I like 9to5Mac.. A lot. But this article has me scratching my head and concluding that you’re just posting click-bait.
Why not have the iPhones build in the USA?? Do we have to build everything overseas? Lord know this country could use the jobs…
“smart, sharp, energetic and amazing” peoples don’t take cheap pay for what they can do.
Alas Guys, Trumph is right!
Apple is happy to rely on the US Government and people’s support through fundamental research (Semiconductors), to enforce its patents, and to stop its mnaufacturing being nationalised by an overseas government in trouble. Yet screams that it would be bankrupt if it was forced to manufacture in the US!
My country (Once Great Britain) long ago followed the path that the US is following. “Free” trade and massive investment in overseas industries, whilst its own industries lack investment and fade away. The result is that the Britian runs a massive trade deficit, lacks well paid blue collar jobs and is absolutely reliant on the US for its security.
Industrial strength is the meaningful measure of national strength in the 21st Century, without it the US is finished. Consider in 2014 the US built 293,000 tonnes of civilian shipping, China built 88,930,000 tonnes.
The sad truth is that it may already be to late, the US military despite its courage, skill and strength could not fight a sustained conflict if China and other states did not agree to continue to supply it with resources that tthe US no longer manufacturers.
Think hard about this, just how Free will the home of the brave be in the future!
I think he is very aggresive in all the things.