In addition, the EU has got fire breathing on them in a major way.
This is all talk at the moment. As we have seen, Trump has a playbook. He will make a strong demand. If there is no effort or negotiation, he will execute on that promise. Then, when stubborn parties have softened, he will negotiate again, or pivot as needed. This administration is very agile and can turn on a dime. And with Scott bessent factoring so heavily, it’s going to turn out well.
Trump got criticized for helping apple with exemptions and he will surely get criticized for this. Dude can’t win with some people.
His playbook is sketched with crayons, he can't win because he's not winning.
Now, it is up to Tim Cook how he will respond and drive the stock up again.
Amazon is also facing headwinds, but the stock has recovered so far. Walmart, too. Jensen Huang responded immediately and the US government removed the chip restriction to sell to China.
If Tim Cook still has no answer, he needs to step down.
Apple Investors must be frustrating now due to poor stock performance (downhill for 8 days in a row).
Tim Cook.. If you are reading this, you are cooking Apple and if you have no idea how to navigate, step down.
I guess if Tim wont do what Trump tells him to, then it's best to destroy Apple (and any other American brand that won't toe the line) - is that his cunning plan? - looks like it's working well.
I suggest the US citizens go abroad to buy their Apple products. Canada could sell them without VAT to US clients. For all the Americans go abroad visit another country and buy you Apple products there. Anyhow that egocentric imbecile of a president belongs in jail. He is only manipulating the markets to increase his wealth.
In addition, the EU has got fire breathing on them in a major way.
This is all talk at the moment. As we have seen, Trump has a playbook. He will make a strong demand. If there is no effort or negotiation, he will execute on that promise. Then, when stubborn parties have softened, he will negotiate again, or pivot as needed. This administration is very agile and can turn on a dime. And with Scott bessent factoring so heavily, it’s going to turn out well.
Trump got criticized for helping apple with exemptions and he will surely get criticized for this. Dude can’t win with some people.
And there it is, as I predicted.
Trump does not have a playbook. At least, not the one you’re suggesting.
It is literally impossible for Apple to meet Trump’s demand that Apple make iPhones in the United States. Even if they entirely disregarded the cost and economics, it would take years before the first phone rolled off the production line. So what’s in the playbook after (probably illegally) threatening a 25% tariff if Apple doesn’t make iPhones in the US?
This is the same President (illegally) accepting a Trojan horse of a “free” airplane, thinking that it can be retrofitted right away to be used as Air Force One. Then he wants to turn it over to his Presidential Library, where he promises not to use it. In reality, it will take years and an estimated $1 billion to retrofit the plane. If it even makes it into service before the end of 2028, he’s going to then decommission it and permanently park it at an as-yet unidentified library location? Why am I bringing that ridiculous scenario up? Because it makes as much sense as demanding Apple move iPhone production to the US or face a selective and probably illegal tariff.
So ok. Let’s say you’re put in charge of Apple. What’s your response to this impossible demand?
Now, it is up to Tim Cook how he will respond and drive the stock up again.
Amazon is also facing headwinds, but the stock has recovered so far. Walmart, too. Jensen Huang responded immediately and the US government removed the chip restriction to sell to China.
If Tim Cook still has no answer, he needs to step down.
Apple Investors must be frustrating now due to poor stock performance (downhill for 8 days in a row).
Tim Cook.. If you are reading this, you are cooking Apple and if you have no idea how to navigate, step down.
I guess if Tim wont do what Trump tells him to, then it's best to destroy Apple (and any other American brand that won't toe the line) - is that his cunning plan? - looks like it's working well.
To be fair: The recent stock performance is not directly linked to tariffs or Trump. It is just Apple´s poor performance. Even companies incl. AMZN, NVDA, META and MSFT are hitting almost ATH despite of tariffs and fear of potential recession.
Walmart just announced to raise prices due to tariffs, but Trump does not threat Walmart to announce 25% tariffs on Walmart. Even Walmart is doing fine on the stock market.
So... Why is that?? Because other companies are doing fine and still navigating for further growth stories while Apple´s growth story does not exist.
Even Xiaomi overtakes Apple at Wearables in China. Apple again raises some trade benefits for new iPhones in China. But if you look at AppleWatch 7 ~ 10, you don´t have major benefits. iPhone 14, 15 and 16 do not give any significant upgrades. Apple Intelligence has turned to Apple Incompetency.
Even today, the stock market is doing quite "well" with less losses. Only Apple gets hammered. I think investors have found any reasons from Trump why they have to sell. It is not about Trump´s speech, but mainly about Apple´s general poor performance.
Now, it is up to Tim Cook how he will respond and drive the stock up again.
Amazon is also facing headwinds, but the stock has recovered so far. Walmart, too. Jensen Huang responded immediately and the US government removed the chip restriction to sell to China.
If Tim Cook still has no answer, he needs to step down.
Apple Investors must be frustrating now due to poor stock performance (downhill for 8 days in a row).
Tim Cook.. If you are reading this, you are cooking Apple and if you have no idea how to navigate, step down.
I guess if Tim wont do what Trump tells him to, then it's best to destroy Apple (and any other American brand that won't toe the line) - is that his cunning plan? - looks like it's working well.
To be fair: The recent stock performance is not directly linked to tariffs or Trump. It is just Apple´s poor performance. Even companies incl. AMZN, NVDA, META and MSFT are hitting almost ATH despite of tariffs and fear of potential recession.
Walmart just announced to raise prices due to tariffs, but Trump does not threat Walmart to announce 25% tariffs on Walmart. Even Walmart is doing fine on the stock market.
So... Why is that?? Because other companies are doing fine and still navigating for further growth stories while Apple´s growth story does not exist.
Even Xiaomi overtakes Apple at Wearables in China. Apple again raises some trade benefits for new iPhones in China. But if you look at AppleWatch 7 ~ 10, you don´t have major benefits. iPhone 14, 15 and 16 do not give any significant upgrades. Apple Intelligence has turned to Apple Incompetency.
Even today, the stock market is doing quite "well" with less losses. Only Apple gets hammered. I think investors have found any reasons from Trump why they have to sell. It is not about Trump´s speech, but mainly about Apple´s general poor performance.
In addition, the EU has got fire breathing on them in a major way.
This is all talk at the moment. As we have seen, Trump has a playbook. He will make a strong demand. If there is no effort or negotiation, he will execute on that promise. Then, when stubborn parties have softened, he will negotiate again, or pivot as needed. This administration is very agile and can turn on a dime. And with Scott bessent factoring so heavily, it’s going to turn out well.
Trump got criticized for helping apple with exemptions and he will surely get criticized for this. Dude can’t win with some people.
Possible related fact: Cult members are always astounded when those outside their cult don't express mindless adulation for their cult leader.
"Trump has a playbook." Yes, the demonstrably anti-American manifesto "Project 2025" that Trump denied knowledge of while campaigning, then implemented once in office.
Filed under Bloviating Scatology: "This administration is very agile and can turn on a dime" & "And with Scott bessent factoring so heavily, it’s going to turn out well." Get the acolytes some pom poms! Solid sycophancy, but lacking evidence.
"Dude can’t win with some people" - Generally, patriotic American citizens don't take kindly to either incompetent buffoons or anti-American autocrats. Doubly so for those who fit into both categories.
Ignored/lost in the kowtowing post is the dubious legality of such autocratic moves, whether for or against Apple. For the minions who think that the Executive branch is empowered to do such things, what is to prevent Trump-as-Muskovite from imposing tariffs and duties on specific automakers, or competitors of Trump's casinos and hotels? What happened to "the GoVeRnMeNt shouldn't be picking winners and losers"? Why, after so many years of decrying Soviet central planning of the economy, Republicans now slavishly trumpet the GOP's version of government central planning of the economy? What happened to the invisible hand of the marketplace? Has the GOP given up on capitalism, or are they now only pushing their brand of bribery, corruption, and crony-capitalism?
The whole thing stinks on ice and everyone can smell it, with the exception of those who have their heads lodged where everything stinks.
P.S. Re: The brown lipstick for Scott Bessent -
>>> In early April, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said the Trump administration was primed to strike 90 deals in 90 days with trade partners... However, 41 days after Navarro‘s boast on NBC’s Meet the Press and just 47 days until the pause is lifted, only the United Kingdom and China have put pen to paper. Asked on America’s Newsroom on Friday morning where the next deal is going to come from, Bessent responded vaguely and pointed the finger of blame...
He began to squirm when Hemmer asked him which deal would come first. “Uhm, Bill, we’re going to have to see,” he said.
But the Fox News host pressed on. “Is it a summer battle? Do we take this into the fall?” he asked. “And if we take it into the fall, are we talking about 2026 to do a deal that you can announce publicly.”
Around an hour before Bessent’s appearance on America’s Newsroom, Trump reignited his scorched-earth trade war, taking aim at the E.U. and tech company Apple.
Trump warned that Apple would face a 25 percent tariff unless it moves iPhone production to the U.S. He also said he is “recommending” a 50 percent tariff on the European Union starting June 1.
The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”
Predictably, Dow Futures plunged by around 400 points in early trading.
1) Apple is down 3% and I'm sure Trump and his cronies were short selling this week and will then repurchase right before Trump announces that Apple doesn't have to pay 25% on tariffs.
2) What did Cook expect to happen by allowing himself to be extorted by Trump? Once you let a wannabe dictator extort you it's going to keep happening.
Apple is the worst stock performer YTD among Magnificant 7 anyway.
Trump gives a good reason why Tim Cook may stay as CEO at Apple although his performance as CEO has been poor for years.
Rotten Apple can justify that it is Trump´s fault for bad performance on the stock market.
Trump can blame on Apple for higher unemployment rate because Apple does not move their production to the US.
Still hard to believe that US Americans elected Trump as the US president.
US Americans have been brainwashed anyway. They don´t get any proper education.
Apple is rotten. The US "small" government is rotten. And the majority of the US Americans still likes it.
There is no "anyway." AAPL is down almost solely because of this tariff nonsense. Most of the other big tech firms don't make their money selling hardware, so they haven't been hit as hard.
Waiting for the reality-defying explanation from @9secondkox2 about how this is “all part of the plan.”
Even if Apple thought they could move iPhone manufacturing to the US, it would take years. A 25% tariff now isn’t going to help with that.
Watch instead for some bluster followed by a reversal. Watch for Trump and his inner circle to buy Apple stock this afternoon and sell after the reversal.
You called it! "Trump has a playbook."
There needs to be an over/under game for such things. How long will it take for Fox News to construct some absurd rationality, have some bubble-brained blonde spew out the nonsense, then for an orange minion to type it here. A baseline time for over/under should be established. Does anyone know the average wait time for the Kool-Aide line at Jim Jones's final event?
The reasons given that prevent iPhones from being made in the US - “there is not the required skilled labor, there is not a supply of the rare minerals needed, and there are no facilities.” - can be dealt with, but would take years to implement. It’s not impossible, but the overnight change the Orange Man wants can’t happen. Does he really not understand this?
No, it really is impossible. Building products like an iPhone or iPad in the United States requires changes in many parts of American society that are not under Apple's control. Just the ones you mentioned: Skilled labor requires, at a minimum, changes to the educational system not to mention the motivations of American workers, rare minerals , at a minimum, equire changes to regulations and the government's approach to mining operations, the lack of facilities requires, at a minimum, additional changes to regulations, changes to the motivations of other companies, and on and on.
For Apple to move manufacturing to the United States requires a stable economy and significant action by other people, other companies, state and local governments, and the United States Federal Government. In short, for Apple to move manufacturing to the Unties States requires a competent Federal Administrative Branch of the United States, run by a competent individual who makes intelligent decisions based on facts.
So long as we have the current moron in chief with his gaggle of sycophants and fools and a country apparently populated by a significant number of people that thinks said moron, sycophants, and fools are doing a good job, it is literally impossible for Apple to move manufacturing to the United States.
Stop trying to argue otherwise -- it's just normalizing the behavior of the idiots.
I've posted the same point as fred1 recently. It is just poor journalism/reporting/communication to assert that "making iPhones in the US is impossible." It is 100% accurate to say "it would be prohibitively expensive to make iPhones in the US and there isn't the manufacturing capacity to meet even a tiny fraction of demand." As fred1 points out, saying it's "impossible" is easy to refute; a more precise statement could not be refuted.
Neither of us is arguing that it's feasible to shift manufacturing on shore or that Trump is saying anything that makes sense. We're just saying that more precise language is better than less.
Isn’t such specific company focus for a tariff illegal? Not that Trump wouldn’t have “his DOJ” go after Apple alone with some made up charge. Tim’s investment of his time and money to feed the king’s ego has been a waste.
Yes, but it would be trivially easy to write a tariff that impacts only Apple without mentioning Apple. There are plenty of laws, tariffs, tax breaks and the link that are targeted like this.
Now, it is up to Tim Cook how he will respond and drive the stock up again.
Amazon is also facing headwinds, but the stock has recovered so far. Walmart, too. Jensen Huang responded immediately and the US government removed the chip restriction to sell to China.
If Tim Cook still has no answer, he needs to step down.
Apple Investors must be frustrating now due to poor stock performance (downhill for 8 days in a row).
Tim Cook.. If you are reading this, you are cooking Apple and if you have no idea how to navigate, step down.
If you are basing your investments on stock performance over an 8-day period, then a) you shouldn't be investing and b) no one should listen to your suggestions about who should lead Apple.
Also, it is not up to Tim Cook to respond publicly to every moronic thing posted on social media by one of the worst humans in history.
Don't feed the trolls because at this point that's all I can assume they are. Dislike the post. Ignore the poster. Move on. Attention gives them power. Flag posts that violate the rules and move on.
People need to stop thinking this way. It is not the other countries or the companies importing the products that pay the tariffs. It is the American Consumer that pays the tariff.
Worth repeating. The consumer pays for *everything*. Tariffs? Repairable phones? Power supplies for every device? An SD card reader in every Mac? The consumer pays.
People need to stop thinking this way. It is not the other countries or the companies importing the products that pay the tariffs. It is the American Consumer that pays the tariff.
Worth repeating. The consumer pays for *everything*. Tariffs? Repairable phones? Power supplies for every device? An SD card reader in every Mac? The consumer pays.
I agree with your point generally but not entirely.
On the face of it, the idea that tariffs are anything other than a tax on US purchasers is absurd. If Trump had any shame he wouldn't keep spouting this nonsense. Does he also assert that local sales taxes are taxes on businesses? It's literally exactly the same thing. You buy something for price X from someone overseas, but have to pay X to the seller and X times tariff rate to the US government.
On the other hand, economics teaches us that who ultimately bares the burden of a particular tax depends on the market (of the price elasticities of supply and demand). Although in the immediate term the buyer pays the tax (obviously), in the long run some of the cost of the tax will be borne by other economic actors (including the sellers). It's very complex, but I'll give a simple example to demonstrate.
Imagine the worldwide price of widgets is $100. You can buy US made widgets for $100; UK widgets for $100; etc. Now the US imposes a 25% tariff on UK widgets (but not Brazilian, Canadian or US widgets, etc.). If you already had ordered 10 UK widgets, you would get hit with an import duty of $250. But when you placed your next order for widgets, you would get them from anywhere but the UK. We all do that and firms adjust their prices in response. We could end up with an equilibrium of something like a worldwide widget price of $102.50 but the UK sells (many fewer than before) their widgets to US consumers for $82. The end result is that US consumers pay a bit more (but not 25% more); UK sellers are hit hard; and domestic and non-UK widget sellers get a small boost. Oh and the US Treasury gets 25% of the value of the (now much smaller) UK-to-US widget market.
In this example, almost all of the cost is borne by the UK widget sellers and hardly any by US consumers, but that's only because I imagined a market where the UK doesn't have a dominant position to start with. If instead, the UK has a monopoly in widget production (literally impossible to make them elsewhere for some reason), and US consumers have no substitute for widgets (completely inelastic demand) we would have seen a radically different long-term result. Prices (before paying the tariff) would come down slightly, the UK would sell somewhat fewer widgets to the US, and US consumers would be barely almost all the cost of the tariff.
Realistically, the alternative scenario is more relevant to what we'll experience given China's dominant role in production for so many things. So, yeah, US consumers will bear the brunt of these tariffs even in the longer term (and US producers will get a windfall).
Comments
For all the Americans go abroad visit another country and buy you Apple products there.
Anyhow that egocentric imbecile of a president belongs in jail. He is only manipulating the markets to increase his wealth.
It is just Apple´s poor performance.
Even companies incl. AMZN, NVDA, META and MSFT are hitting almost ATH despite of tariffs and fear of potential recession.
Walmart just announced to raise prices due to tariffs, but Trump does not threat Walmart to announce 25% tariffs on Walmart. Even Walmart is doing fine on the stock market.
So... Why is that?? Because other companies are doing fine and still navigating for further growth stories while Apple´s growth story does not exist.
Even Xiaomi overtakes Apple at Wearables in China. Apple again raises some trade benefits for new iPhones in China.
But if you look at AppleWatch 7 ~ 10, you don´t have major benefits.
iPhone 14, 15 and 16 do not give any significant upgrades.
Apple Intelligence has turned to Apple Incompetency.
Even today, the stock market is doing quite "well" with less losses. Only Apple gets hammered. I think investors have found any reasons from Trump why they have to sell.
It is not about Trump´s speech, but mainly about Apple´s general poor performance.
Apple is rotten.
"Trump has a playbook." Yes, the demonstrably anti-American manifesto "Project 2025" that Trump denied knowledge of while campaigning, then implemented once in office.
Filed under Bloviating Scatology: "This administration is very agile and can turn on a dime" & "And with Scott bessent factoring so heavily, it’s going to turn out well." Get the acolytes some pom poms! Solid sycophancy, but lacking evidence.
"Dude can’t win with some people" - Generally, patriotic American citizens don't take kindly to either incompetent buffoons or anti-American autocrats. Doubly so for those who fit into both categories.
Ignored/lost in the kowtowing post is the dubious legality of such autocratic moves, whether for or against Apple. For the minions who think that the Executive branch is empowered to do such things, what is to prevent Trump-as-Muskovite from imposing tariffs and duties on specific automakers, or competitors of Trump's casinos and hotels? What happened to "the GoVeRnMeNt shouldn't be picking winners and losers"? Why, after so many years of decrying Soviet central planning of the economy, Republicans now slavishly trumpet the GOP's version of government central planning of the economy? What happened to the invisible hand of the marketplace? Has the GOP given up on capitalism, or are they now only pushing their brand of bribery, corruption, and crony-capitalism?
The whole thing stinks on ice and everyone can smell it, with the exception of those who have their heads lodged where everything stinks.
P.S. Re: The brown lipstick for Scott Bessent -
>>> In early April, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said the Trump administration was primed to strike 90 deals in 90 days with trade partners...
However, 41 days after Navarro‘s boast on NBC’s Meet the Press and just 47 days until the pause is lifted, only the United Kingdom and China have put pen to paper. Asked on America’s Newsroom on Friday morning where the next deal is going to come from, Bessent responded vaguely and pointed the finger of blame...
He began to squirm when Hemmer asked him which deal would come first. “Uhm, Bill, we’re going to have to see,” he said.
But the Fox News host pressed on. “Is it a summer battle? Do we take this into the fall?” he asked. “And if we take it into the fall, are we talking about 2026 to do a deal that you can announce publicly.”
Around an hour before Bessent’s appearance on America’s Newsroom, Trump reignited his scorched-earth trade war, taking aim at the E.U. and tech company Apple.
Trump warned that Apple would face a 25 percent tariff unless it moves iPhone production to the U.S. He also said he is “recommending” a 50 percent tariff on the European Union starting June 1.
The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”
Predictably, Dow Futures plunged by around 400 points in early trading.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/scott-bessent-squirms-when-pressed-on-trumps-missing-trade-deals-are-we-talking-about-2026/2) What did Cook expect to happen by allowing himself to be extorted by Trump? Once you let a wannabe dictator extort you it's going to keep happening.
There needs to be an over/under game for such things. How long will it take for Fox News to construct some absurd rationality, have some bubble-brained blonde spew out the nonsense, then for an orange minion to type it here. A baseline time for over/under should be established. Does anyone know the average wait time for the Kool-Aide line at Jim Jones's final event?
Neither of us is arguing that it's feasible to shift manufacturing on shore or that Trump is saying anything that makes sense. We're just saying that more precise language is better than less.
Also, it is not up to Tim Cook to respond publicly to every moronic thing posted on social media by one of the worst humans in history.
On the face of it, the idea that tariffs are anything other than a tax on US purchasers is absurd. If Trump had any shame he wouldn't keep spouting this nonsense. Does he also assert that local sales taxes are taxes on businesses? It's literally exactly the same thing. You buy something for price X from someone overseas, but have to pay X to the seller and X times tariff rate to the US government.
On the other hand, economics teaches us that who ultimately bares the burden of a particular tax depends on the market (of the price elasticities of supply and demand). Although in the immediate term the buyer pays the tax (obviously), in the long run some of the cost of the tax will be borne by other economic actors (including the sellers). It's very complex, but I'll give a simple example to demonstrate.
Imagine the worldwide price of widgets is $100. You can buy US made widgets for $100; UK widgets for $100; etc. Now the US imposes a 25% tariff on UK widgets (but not Brazilian, Canadian or US widgets, etc.). If you already had ordered 10 UK widgets, you would get hit with an import duty of $250. But when you placed your next order for widgets, you would get them from anywhere but the UK. We all do that and firms adjust their prices in response. We could end up with an equilibrium of something like a worldwide widget price of $102.50 but the UK sells (many fewer than before) their widgets to US consumers for $82. The end result is that US consumers pay a bit more (but not 25% more); UK sellers are hit hard; and domestic and non-UK widget sellers get a small boost. Oh and the US Treasury gets 25% of the value of the (now much smaller) UK-to-US widget market.
In this example, almost all of the cost is borne by the UK widget sellers and hardly any by US consumers, but that's only because I imagined a market where the UK doesn't have a dominant position to start with. If instead, the UK has a monopoly in widget production (literally impossible to make them elsewhere for some reason), and US consumers have no substitute for widgets (completely inelastic demand) we would have seen a radically different long-term result. Prices (before paying the tariff) would come down slightly, the UK would sell somewhat fewer widgets to the US, and US consumers would be barely almost all the cost of the tariff.
Realistically, the alternative scenario is more relevant to what we'll experience given China's dominant role in production for so many things. So, yeah, US consumers will bear the brunt of these tariffs even in the longer term (and US producers will get a windfall).