In the Truth Social Post Friday morning, President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on iPhones if Tim Cook did not transfer manufacturing to the U.S. It turns out that the situation is much more complicated than this.
Later that day, Trump clarified during a conversation with the media that tariffs would apply any The company sells foreign-made phones in the United States, not just Apple. The president said the new 25% 25% smartphone tariff could arrive from the end of June to the end of June. He also made sure to pick out Samsung, the second most popular smartphone brand in the U.S. market. This broader approach makes more sense than the initial threat to Apple, as it is unclear how the Trump administration plans to put tariffs on a company’s products.
Even so, it is not the first time Trump has imposed tariffs on specific companies, and this may not be the last one. In addition to Apple, President Trump has previously threatened to target tariffs. Dr. Milan Miric, associate professor of data science and operations at the Marshall School of Business at USC, explained to Mashable how President Trump effectively targeted a single company with tariffs.
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“For Apple, hardware products are their most important business line. All competitors in the United States who can compete on hardware are foreign companies made abroad (such as Samsung),” Mirik told Mashable via email. “So if you want to target consumer electronics from China, the most direct impact of the U.S. company is Apple.”
In the context, Apple relies more on hardware sales to strengthen its business than on U.S. competitors like Google and Microsoft, which are primarily service companies that happen to sell some of their hardware.
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All of this could be the prelude to a similar trade deal with Apple, according to Miric, as Trump has negotiated with foreign governments.
“You can imagine a scenario where large U.S. companies compromise with the government, where some of their own products are very popular among U.S. consumers and are important to U.S. operations, but then tariffs apply widely to foreign companies, effectively providing additional protection to these U.S. companies,” Miric said.
Earlier this year, Apple promised to spend $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years and build a new factory in Texas, but iPhone Manufacturing is unlikely to return to the U.S. As Mashable’s Stan Schroeder previously reported, an iPhone made in the United States could cost At least $3,000.
While new tariffs on smartphones are likely to arrive in June, the president’s tariff policy includes some surprising reversals. Wall Street is paying attention.
Samsung and Apple stocks both fell on Friday after the president’s speech.
