On Friday, U.S. President Trump seemed nonplused when asked about the ramifications of banning WeChat on Apple’s iPhone business in China.
Apple is among more than a dozen U.S. companies which during a conference call on Tuesday warned the Trump administration about the potential ramifications of banning WeChat from their platforms.
Trump wants to ban apps and services that are based in China, which is the case of ByteDance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat. He signed an executive order on Thursday that bans not only these two apps in the US, but also any transactions with its parent companies. Both orders will take effect in 45 days.
Reporter: There’s a lot of alarm among American companies about your order on WeChat – Apple, Ford, Disney. They’re worried because it’s such a big communications platform and payment platform in China that if you ban U.S. businesses from working with them, they won’t be able to sell, you know, iPhones into China…
Trump: Whatever.
Reporter: So, you don’t mind if…
Trump: Gotta do what’s good in terms of the security of our country. We’ve been very badly let down by China.
The remarks regarding Apple begin at 14:55:
MacDailyNews Note: Trump’s executive order banning WeChat (and TikTok) goes into effect on September 20th, but there are many outstanding questions and a lot could happen before we start worrying about iPhone sales in China.