White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused Apple CEO Tim Cook of lying about plans to shift iPhone production from China to the US, claiming Cook had “lied through his teeth” by making similar promises during the first Trump administration.
In the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” released Wednesday, Navarro told host and NY Post columnist Miranda Devine that Cook is “the king of evading tariffs.”
Josh Christenson for The New York Post:
“We let him get away with it in the first term, because he promised he would basically bring his iPhone production here — or out of China — and he lied through his teeth,” said President Trump’s senior counselor on trade and manufacturing.
Devine asked whether American manufacturing was experiencing a renaissance during President Trump’s second term, noting that Apple already has factories in the US and has promised to expand its domestic footprint.
“Not with Apple. I mean, they’re going to India, and to me, that’s not a whole lot better than being in China,” Navarro fired back. “But, that’s the exception, I think, that proves the rule.”
Trump has also faulted Cook for making products in India.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Tim Cook’s promises on American iPhone production are the same old song and dance — rinse, repeat, never deliver.
And let’s be real, it’s not just the iPhone assembly mirage that’s stuck on repeat. Under Cook, Apple’s whole vibe has settled into the same predictable, zero-charisma groove: soulless canned video keynotes, incremental “innovations,” and zero Jobs-level spark. Steve sold dreams; Tim sells spreadsheets. Boring? Check. Effective at printing money? Also check. But if “same old song and dance” fits Cook’s empty promises on iPhone assembly, it fits Tim Cook’s Apple even better.
In China, there are city-size factories dedicated to assembling some 190 million iPhone units per years – dropping annually as India assembly grows. iPhone assembly is not really something that would work in America. The wages wouldn’t be attractive and there’s no city-sized worker housing, cafeterias, etc. And, by the way, how long until robotics can handle iPhone assembly? These jobs will go the way of the dodo as robotics advances. Those are the kind of assembly plants that could be built in America, staffed by a relative few, much higher paid engineers who keep the robotic assembly lines running.
The pressure applied to Apple is resulting in some movement in other product areas, however:
Apple brings Mac mini production to America from Asia – February 24, 2026
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Cook is a DemonRat, so, of course, he lies through his teeth.
DemonRats hate America and American citizens, clearly:
Run that video on repeat, GOP. It always delivers.
And PASS The SAVE America Act!
Good luck in the midterms, Democrats, you anti-Americans.
The D has been exposed for anti-Americans for all Americans to see last night
Tim Cook, Steve’s worst mistake.
Agree. Because Tim Cook is an awful CEO putting all his production eggs in non diversified hostile communist basket. That’s a failure of business 101, diversification of supply and production.
President Obama asked Steve Jobs, “What would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Why can’t that work come home? Steve’s reply: “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”
Also remember that Navarro once attributed quotations to a supposed expert named “Ron Vara”, who turned out to have been invented by Navarro himself. Navarro admitted in 2019 to having invented “Ron Vara”, which is an anagram of “Navarro”. He cited Vara’s supposed opinions and quotations in several books dating back to 2001. The guy is a charlatan.
It would be fair to say those jobs were never here to begin with.
The consumer electronics revolution didn’t really happen until post-war Japan and Sony.
Before that, you had a handful of middle-class Americans building a small number of very expensive RCA radios and Zenith televisions. Families had to pay them off over years.
The explosion of electronics products happened only when Asia scaled production with low-wage jobs.
We never had those jobs, those products, or that scale before that point.
MDN is exactly right. That production will only be on-shored once it’s fully-robotic.
“It would be fair to say those jobs were never here to begin with.”
As far as the iPhone goes, that is absolutely correct. Apple/Jobs realized in the early 90s that they could not compete with PC makers unless they offshored everything to China, and brought in Cook to figure out the logistics. Cook was an absolute logistical genius. Apple would not exist unless the manufacturing shift to Asia had occurred.
But Cook has been unbelievably slow in diversifying the supply chain since the 2000s, but Jobs should have also recognized the danger during his last decade at Apple.
I know who i would believe in this story and it is absolutely not Navarro…..
Trump LIED THROUGH HIS TEETH about ending the war with Russia on Day 1, ending all the Forever Wars and diabolical “regime changes”, about shrinking the size of government, about making America Healthy Again while being bought off by Monsanto and Pfizer so RoundUp and a bioweapon vaccine can be used to kill Americans. Trump has turned into the biggest Presidential liar of all time since he started his second term. A for iPhones, anyone with a brain knew they would never be made here. The US does not have the capability to make iPhones.
Meh, whatever. It’s not like flipping a switch.
It takes time to change strategy, and Apple is doing well to create a new manufacturing beehive in the US that will benefit future generations.
From MDN, “In China, there are city-size factories dedicated to assembling some 190 million iPhone units…”
Raise your hand if you want one of these cities (200,000 to 350,000 population, btw.) in your backyard.
Raise both hands if you actually would go to work in one. I hear the dormitories are “cozy.”
These can be done by robot automation. Foxconn already is doing that abroad. It can be done here in the USA.
Wait, you mean you guys actually thought the iPhone would be produced in America? Tim Cook lied to a compulsive liar (Trump) to secure deals – you should be celebrating this not chiding him.
America currently has THE MOST HONEST PRESIDENT it will ever have in President Trump, who says what he believes forthrightly, honestly, and plainly.
That some people are blind to that fact boggles the mind of thinking, sane American citizens.
In President Trump, America finally has a leader who’s willing to use the country’s vast economic power to achieve important goals intended to benefit American citizens. Imagine that.
MAGA.