President Trump announced on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 that Apple CEO Tim Cook has made plans to build “three big plant, beautiful plants” in the United States.
The announcement relayed a conversation the president had with Cook recently where he remarked to Mr. Cook, “I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won’t consider my administration an economic success,” he was quoted in The Wall Street Journal.
According to President Trump, he stated, “He called me, and he said they are going forward.”
Apple didn’t respond right away to the comment. The computing giant isn’t always ready to share their plans with the public, and this may be news they weren’t ready to bring out in the open.
So far, there is no indication of where these plants are going to be located, how big they might be, or what might be manufactured. While President Trump is hopeful that the plants will bring many jobs to the United States, where these jobs are going to be is not yet clear.
Throughout his campaign, Trump promised to get Apple and other high-value enterprises to start manufacturing in the United States and stop shipping jobs to other countries. It’s possible that the president is now able to make good on his campaign promise if what he is saying about Apple becomes reality.
Upon winning the election, Trump once again told The New York Times he was focused on the goal to “get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants.”
While it may appear that Apple doesn’t manufacturer anything in the United States, this isn’t quite true. The Corning factory in Kentucky is responsible for making iPhone and iPad displays, while the products are outfitted with Wi-Fi radios that are made in Texas. The Mac Pro is also manufactured in Austin, Texas.
Apple employs roughly 80,000 people in the United States in both manufacturing and retail stores. The biggest product made by Apple, the iPhone, is made in China, where it is put together by the hundreds of thousands of people. President Trump is trying to bring these manufacturing jobs to the United States, although there is no clear plan what incentives are being offered to Apple to do so.
A few months into 2017, Cook stated that Apple would be putting $1billion into a fund meant to create advanced jobs to Foxconn, a U.S.-based company and a huge supplier to Apple. He added that Apple is planning to build one new factory in the United States.
According to Fortune, Foxconn is building an $10 billion plant in Wisconsin. The plant will produce LCD display panel screens which will be used on iPhones. The investment will occur over the next four years, and it is expected that 3,000 new manufacturing jobs will be created.
Foxconn is stating that the factory will have the potential to create up to 13,000 new jobs in the future.
The state of Wisconsin will award Foxconn $3 billion in incentives to bring the factory to their state. However, some are skeptical of Foxconn’s track record at promising to create new jobs and not following through.
A Democratic senator from Wisconsin, Jennifer Shilling, is questioning the whole deal.
“The bottom line is this company has a concerning track record of big announcements with little follow through,” she said.
According to Fortune, Foxconn promised to invest $30 million in 2013 to build a new factory in Pennsylvania and create 500 new jobs. The factory was never finished, and Foxconn build another smaller factory in another area of the state.
President Trump’s desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States is a promising one for many hard working Americans. People are willing to work, but the jobs just aren’t there for many people.
If the maneuver works, it will certainly lend credence to Trump’s populist economic message.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
