By Rolfe Winkler

To Apple investors, President Trump is all bark and no bite, at least when it comes to the shade he threw towards Tim Cook earlier today.

Apple shares traded roughly in line with the market after the President, speaking in Qatar, chided Cook for "building in India," adding: "We want you to build here," in the U.S.

The criticism cuts at the heart of Apple's strategy to dodge to worst impact of Trump's tariffs: Shift final assembly of more iPhones to India so Apple can claim that nation as the "country of origin" when iPhones cross into the U.S. It's perfectly legal but far from the "Made in America" iPhone that Trump and officials in his administration have called for.

India faces lower tariffs even after Trump retreated on sky high duties slapped on China. And the long-term trade relationship between the U.S. and India seems more stable, relative to China. Hence Apple's plan to ship most U.S. bound iPhones from the subcontinent this year.

What this doesn't do is move any production back to the U.S., the key goal of Trump's aggressive trade stance. Apple announced plans to do that with artificial-intelligence servers in Texas. And it is considering ways to bring iPhone production to the U.S., but it could take years, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 15, 2025 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)

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