“Apple can’t seem to avoid the spotlight,” Niraj Chokshi writes for The Washington Post. “Donald Trump singled out the tech giant at the end of a long speech Monday, chastising the company and others for sending business abroad. If that criticism sounds familiar, that’s because it is: Apple found itself under fire for its outsourcing practices during the 2012 presidential campaign.”
“‘We’re going to get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries,’ the Republican presidential candidate told a crowd at Virginia’s Liberty University on Monday,” Chokshi writes. “Trump’s promise came at the end of a long speech in which Trump vowed to make American businesses pay for moving factories abroad. At one point, he suggested a 35 percent tax on products crossing the border back into America to threaten businesses to stay, though he almost immediately added: ‘I don’t want to do that because I’m a free-trader.'”
“Trump is consistent in criticizing Apple. In a video posted to his blog after Obama’s 2012 State of the Union speech, Trump cited outsourcing as his only complaint about the company,” Chokshi writes. “‘The only thing I don’t like about Apple, and you can’t say much, is that why don’t they make their product here?’ he asked. ‘When you think of Apple, you think of nothing but good. But the bad thing is their products are made in China for the most part. Wouldn’t it be great and wouldn’t it be a great story if they could start making their products in the U.S.A.?'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, the United States does not have the infrastructure or the labor force required to support the assembly of 100+ million iPhones per year, not to mention the manufacture of disparate iPhone components.
“Those jobs aren’t coming back.” – Steve Jobs, February 2011, when asked by U.S. President Barack Obama why iPhones aren’t made in America
“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries. We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.” — Anonymous Apple executive, January 2012
“The entire supply chain is in China now. You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours. — Anonymous former Apple executive, January 2012
SEE ALSO:
Trump could cost U.S. consumers $6 billion per year by imposing a 35% tariff on Apple iPhone – January 19, 2016
Trump: We’ll get Apple to manufacture ‘their damn computers and things’ in the U.S.A. – January 18, 2016
Robots, not people, led Apple to make new Mac Pro in the U.S.A. – January 21, 2014
Former Reagan staffer: Apple has an obligation to help solve America’s problems – April 3, 2012