Donald Trump intends to make more iPhones in Apple's plan to avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made goods as he continues to prompt tech groups to make their best-selling devices in the U.S.
The U.S. president said in his latest competition at his Middle East tour that he had a small problem with Tim Cook yesterday, after the Apple CEO confirmed last week that the Indian factory would offer "majority" of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the coming months.
The Financial Times previously reported that Apple plans to supply all iPhones from India by the end of next year.
Trump criticized the idea Thursday, saying he told Cook: "We treat you very well and we endure all the plants you have built in China over the years. We are not interested in building you in India."
He claimed that after the conversation, Apple will "improve its work in the United States." Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump's comments are the latest sign that the president's relationship with one of the most valuable companies in the United States has cooled down.
At an event in Riyadh this week, Trump praised chipmaker chief Jensen Huang for its praise on the stage, saying: “Tim Cook is not here.
Apple promised in February to spend $50 billion in the United States during its four-year tenure with Trump, including chips and servers that produce AI.
However, the company faces enormous challenges in replicating its vast Chinese supply chain and production facilities in the United States that rely on skilled high-tech manufacturing people who are now overwhelmingly in Asia.
Analysts estimate that this will cost tens of billions of dollars, and it will take years for Apple to increase the U.S. iPhone manufacturing industry, which currently produces only very limited products.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month that Cook told him that the United States will need "robot weapons" to replicate the "scale and precision" of Chinese iPhone manufacturing.
“He’s going to build it here,” Lutnik told CNBC. "And Americans will be the technicians who drive these factories. They won't be the technicians who mess up."
Lutnick added that his previous comments said, “A large army of millions of humans will screw small screws to make an iPhone, which will be a situation out of context.”
He added: “Americans will work in factories like this, just work in high-paying jobs.”