Billionaire Apple CEO Tim Cook presented Donald Trump with a gaudy personalized gift boasting a 24-karat gold base as the tech giant woo’ed the president at the White House on Wednesday.
Cook dropped in to the White House bearing his golden gift to announce the tech company’s extra $100 billion investment in American manufacturing as the president still waves the threat of tariffs.
The president started the press conference by calling Cook, “One of the great and most esteemed business leaders and geniuses and innovators anywhere in the world.”
Bizarrely, Trump also said the 64-year-old had “just about every quality he can have other than athleticism. I don’t know about that. I’m looking at him. I’m not, I’m not a 100% sure about you [being] a good athlete. I’ll bet you’re pretty good.”
After the awkward introductions, Cook placed his gift–an ornament with a circular glass disc that fits into a gold base–on the president’s desk.
The glass was engraved with Trump’s name, the CEO’s signature and the phrase, “MADE IN USA”.
“It is a unique unit of one,” Cook fawned, while showing off the gift to media, saying it was designed by a former military officer who now works at Apple.
Apple previously announced a $500 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing in February after Trump started his war on imported goods. While Apple products are designed and assembled in America, currently over 80% of them are manufactured in China.
Trump’s 34% tariffs of goods imported to the U.S. from China go into effect on August 12.
Trump had pushed Apple to make its products in America, despite tech experts claiming that would increase the price of iPhones by hundreds of dollars-an issue not raised in Wednesday’s press conference.
The Daily Beast has contacted Apple for information about a potential price rise for made-in-America products.
In May, Cook said most of the devices sold in the U.S. in the June quarter would be shipped in from India or Vietnam. The company had already flagged a potential price rise on the upcoming iPhone 17 but did not attribute it to tariffs.
When asked at the White House about a breakdown of what parts of the iPhone could be made in America, Cook stated the company were making the semiconductors, glass and Face ID module in the U.S, but the “final assembly” of the products “will be elsewhere for a while.”
Trump bragged, “I think we may incentivize him enough that one day he’ll be bringing that [assembly to America], but he brings most of the stuff.”
The president said Apple will begin to manufacture semiconductor equipment in Texas, Utah, Arizona and New York, as well as making magnets in Texas.
Trump said the “ultimate goal” was ensuring that “iPhones sold in the United States of America are also made in America.” He added, “Isn’t that nice, we’re doing these things now in the United States, instead of other countries, far away countries.”
Trump warned that his administration will still be “putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors” of around 100-percent on the hardware still being imported to the U.S.
Trump, who claimed he hadn’t told Cook about the import tariff before announcing it, said any company building those chips in America would have “no charge.”
The president threatened any tech company who reneged on their promised to manufacture chips in America with financial punishment. “If for some reason you say you’re building and you don’t build, then we go back and... we add it up,” Trump said.
He added, “It accumulates and we charge you at a later date you have to pay and that’s a guarantee. That’s a big statement and I think the chip companies are all coming back home.”
