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President Donald Trump said he had a "little problem" this week with Apple CEO Tim Cook and the tech giant using facilities in India to make iPhones for sale in the U.S.
The president recounted what he told Cook while giving remarks at an event in Qatar on Thursday during his ongoing trip to the Middle East.
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"I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said. "I said to him, ‘Tim, you’re my friend, I’ve treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India if you want to take care of India, because India is one of the highest-tariff nations in the world,’" Trump said.
"But I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim, look we’ve treated you really good. We put up with all the plants that you build in China for years. Now you got to build us. We’re not interested in you building in India, India can take care of themselves, they’re doing very well. We want you to build here.’"
Apple has been turning to India for more future production of phones destined for the American market to try to reduce its dependence on China for manufacturing and deal with tariffs, according to Bloomberg.
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During Apple’s second-quarter earnings call at the beginning of the month, Cook told analysts and investors that Apple anticipated the "majority" of iPhones sold in the U.S. "will have India as their country of origin" in the third-quarter. As for iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Airpods sold in the U.S., "almost all" of those will have Vietnam as their country of origin, according to the Apple CEO.
"China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the U.S.," he added.
Trump said Thursday that Apple was "going to be upping their production in the United States."
"Apple’s already in for $500 billion but they’re going to be upping their production so it’ll be great," he said.
In February, Apple pledged $500 billion in funds over four years that the tech giant said would build on its "long history of investing in American innovation and advanced high-skilled manufacturing."
That investment, the company said, will involve Apple and its partners establishing a new "advanced manufacturing" facility in Houston for servers geared toward Apple Artificial Intelligence.