So, remember when Trump got on Truth Social and said Apple should stop making iPhones in China and start churning them out in good ole blue-collar America… places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and wherever else the diner coffee still costs $1.25?

I remember the entire tech and finance crowd laughed it off like it was another “Tim Apple” moment. I mean, building iPhones in America? Sure, just like we’ll be commuting to work on hoverboards and paying rent with Dogecoin. (Sounds great in theory… in reality, makes no freaking sense.) I even wrote an article dragging the whole thing, pointing out that moving iPhone production stateside would be wildly expensive, logistically insane, and (most importantly) the jobs wouldn’t even pay enough for Americans to want them. (No offense, but no one in Youngstown is dying to solder microchips 12 hours a day in a clean room for $13/hour.)

But here we are. Somehow, Trump memed it into reality. Tim Apple Cook just agreed to pour another $100 billion into U.S. manufacturing, bringing Apple’s four-year domestic spending total to $600 billion. (Forget “bringing jobs back to the Rust Belt”... that might be enough money to buy Ohio.)

So what changed? Well… basically the same reason I went to Geometry class in high school: I had no choice. Trump effectively held the iPhone hostage. Earlier this year, he threatened to stamp a 25% tariff on any iPhone made outside the U.S. This came just a day after a sit-down with Cook, where Trump reportedly told him: “I don’t want you building in India. India can take care of themselves.” And after taking an $800 million hit from tariffs last quarter (with another $1.1 billion projected in the next), Cook finally gave in. Even the guy selling $1,200 phones with no charger in the box knows when to do the math.

So now Apple’s playing nice. They’ve unveiled something called the “American Manufacturing Program,” which honestly sounds like a halfway house job for someone who made a living stealing catalytic converters. But it’s real… and the goal is to bring more critical parts of Apple’s supply chain stateside: AI chips, semiconductors, high-end modules. You know, the sexy stuff.

(Source: Yahoo Finance)

As for the lower-end mass assembly work? That’s still staying overseas. No one’s paying $3,000 for a Made-in-Detroit iPhone 17 with patriotic packaging and union dues baked into the price tag. It’s not quite the Rust Belt comeback Trump’s been promising since 2016, but it’s one hell of a PR win. He now gets to stand next to Tim Cook and say things like, “Everyone’s saying, ‘Sir, I’ve never seen iPhones like this before. This is beautiful, sir.’”

Meanwhile, Apple avoids a tariff apocalypse, and shareholders get a rare win (for the year of 2025, that is). The stock jumped 3.6% on the news… its best day in nearly three months. Because no matter how you spin it, spending $100 billion to avoid a multi-billion-dollar tax bill is the kind of math investors love. Even if it means pretending an AI chip lab in Akron is the new global supply chain hub.

Trump may not have his iPhones rolling off the line in an old steel mill yet… but with $600 billion in U.S. investment now on the books, he’s a lot closer to turning “Tim Apple” into “Tim America.”

And if Cook ends up cutting a ribbon in Scranton, proudly holding up a red-white-and-blue iPhone made with 12% more American freedom? That’s some prime PR for a second term already bursting at the seams with drama.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Apple as mentioned in the article.