US President Donald Trump (pictured) reportedly slammed Apple CEO Tim Cook’s decision to significantly boost the amount of iPhones it manufactures in India as a way of avoiding tariffs on products made in China, as relations between the pair appear to be worsening.
The Financial Times (FT) reported Trump made comments about Apple’s India plans in Qatar, as he concludes a tour of the Middle East during which the President has claimed to have played a key role in securing deals involving Saudi Arabia and US technology companies, including Nvidia.
Trump reportedly said he had “a little problem with Tim Cook”, referencing the CEO’s plans to assemble all smartphones for the US market in India by end-2026, amounting to more than 60 million units.
This would effectively more than double India’s current output.
According to the FT, Trump told Cook: “We are treating you really good, we put up all the plans you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India.”
Trump added that in response, Apple planned to up their production in the US, although this has not been confirmed by the company.
The President also appeared to hit out at Cook at an event in Riyadh this week when discussing Nvidia’s deal with Saudi AI venture Humain. Speaking to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on stage, Trump said: “Tim Cook isn’t here, but you are.”
Apple did state in February it planned to spend $500 billion in the US over Trump’s four year term to manufacture chips and AI servers.