In 2011, President Barack Obama asked Apple cofounder Steve Jobs what it would take to shift iPhone assembly back to the United States. Fast-forward 14 years: former President Donald Trump is resurrecting that same question with Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook. Trump has threatened a 25 percent tariff on Apple—and other smartphone makers—unless they build every iPhone sold in the U.S. domestically.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25 percent must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”

Earlier this month, Cook confirmed that most iPhones bound for American customers will ship from India. That response underscores a tough reality: reassembling the iPhone’s global supply chain on U.S. soil would dramatically upend how Apple produces its most profitable device.

A Well-Oiled Overseas Manufacturing Ecosystem

Currently, Apple relies heavily on factories in China and—more recently—India, where a specialized workforce has been honed to assemble millions of iPhones every year. Foxconn, Apple’s long-standing manufacturing partner, employs up to 900,000 people at peak production. Their vast campuses, complete with dormitories and on-site support services, allow Foxconn to rapidly adjust output to match Apple’s exacting timelines.

“China already has sprawling facilities designed specifically for electronics assembly,” notes Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. In these plants, teams of workers focus on narrow, highly skilled tasks—often programming industrial robots or performing precision component installation. That level of specialization and scale cannot simply be duplicated overnight in the U.S.

David Marcotte, senior vice president at Kantar, adds: “Each step of the iPhone’s assembly requires expertise developed over many years. Replicating that on American soil would be an immense challenge.”

Labor and Skills Gap

Manufacturing in the United States today looks very different than it did in the latter half of the 20th century. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 8 percent of American workers were employed in manufacturing as of early 2025—down from roughly 26 percent in 1970. Moreover, modern factories increasingly rely on a blend of robotics, data analytics, and coding skills—areas where China and India currently hold an edge when it comes to electronics production.

Carolyn Lee, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute, explains that “the job has very much changed. Workers today need training in programming, data analysis, and advanced machine operations.” Apple CEO Tim Cook has echoed that point: at a 2017 Fortune event, he said that China offered a rare combination of “craftsmanship, sophisticated robotics, and software talent.” He warned that meeting Apple’s exacting standards without that unique mix would be nearly impossible.

President Trump’s Onshoring Push

One of Trump’s central economic objectives has been to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Within the first months of his second term, he levied tariffs on broad categories of imported goods, hoping to incentivize companies to build products domestically. Trump’s threat of a 25 percent tariff on smartphones sold in the U.S. would, if enforced, make iPhones significantly more expensive for American consumers—or cut deeply into Apple’s profit margins.

Cook reportedly met with Trump last week to discuss these proposals. Trump, for his part, hailed Apple’s February commitment to invest $500 billion in U.S. operations over the next four years—money earmarked for R&D, data-center facilities, and a Detroit “Academy” to teach small and mid-sized businesses about advanced manufacturing and AI tools. Taiwan’s TSMC has similarly pledged $100 billion to build or expand American chip-making plants, which Trump called a “political win” onshoring U.S. tech production.

Yet Apple’s February announcement does not include training a workforce capable of iPhone-scale assembly. Instead, the Detroit academy will focus on helping other businesses adopt “smart manufacturing” practices—not on building the trained, highly specialized labor pool that Foxconn has cultivated over decades in Asia.

What It Would Take to Build in America

Several analysts believe that Apple could shift at least part of its iPhone assembly to the U.S. within five years—but only by fundamentally changing the way each device is put together. Patrick Moorhead, founder and CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, says Apple would need to introduce far more automation to offset the higher labor costs and skill gaps. That could mean redesigning certain elements—glue application, component placement, or precision machining—to be driven by robotic arms rather than hand-assembly.

Ultrahuman, a smart health ring startup, offers a real-world example. CEO Mohit Kumar told CNN that when Ultrahuman moved production of its wearable from India to Texas last November, it leaned heavily on automation and cross-training workers to perform multiple tasks like casting and polishing. Even so, Ultrahuman accepts that mass-producing millions of units at the level Apple requires is a far bigger undertaking.

Many core iPhone components—chips, camera modules, displays—still originate with suppliers based in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and elsewhere in Asia. Shifting assembly alone would break the synergy of having suppliers clustered near one another, intensifying logistical hurdles and rising freight costs. Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, estimates that 90 percent of iPhone production currently takes place in China; as recently as last year, that figure dipped to about 40 percent only after Apple began ramping up in India. Ives warns that assembling the iPhone in the U.S. might triple the device’s price.

Even if Apple were willing to redesign the iPhone for greater automation, recruit and retrain thousands of American factory workers, and reorganize its supplier network, the company would face significant political pressure from both sides. Trump’s tariffs risk imposing punishing costs on Apple, but CEOs and shareholders alike may balk at the price increases or margin squeeze such a move would entail.

A Tightrope Walk

Forrester’s Chatterjee sums up Apple’s quandary: “You cannot realistically, from an economic standpoint, bring iPhone production to the U.S., and you also can’t simply refuse to do it.” Apple must carefully navigate between appeasing political demands to onshore manufacturing and preserving the cost efficiencies that keep iPhone prices competitive.

At this point, the consensus among analysts is clear: Apple will continue to expand production in India and maintain its China base. Until there’s a seismic shift in labor availability, automation technology, or supply-chain structure, making iPhones in America remains more aspiration than reality.