About 60% of the 220 million phones Samsung sells each year globally are made in Vietnam, and many are destined for the U.S., where Samsung is the No. 2 smartphone vendor, according to research firm Counterpoint.
Earlier Friday, the president targeted Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, who visited Trump at the White House last week. The president wrote that iPhones sold in the United States should be “manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.” If they are not, Trump said the smartphones would face a 25% tariff.
In April, Trump had agreed to exclude electronics, including iPhones, from the tariffs he had imposed on China. The step could have saved companies like Apple billions of dollars in tariff costs. But the president’s comments Friday morning suggested he might be rethinking that decision.
Apple has already committed to producing some AI servers in Houston and purchasing $19 billion worth of U.S.-made chips, but Trump remains dissatisfied that iPhones, iPads, and Macs are still assembled abroad.
During a recent visit to the Middle East, Trump expressed frustration with Cook. “You’re my friend… but now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India,” he reportedly told the Apple CEO. Apple has gradually shifted some iPhone production out of China to countries like India and Vietnam, due in part to rising costs and geopolitical tensions. Experts say moving full-scale manufacturing to the U.S. would face major challenges, including a lack of a large, skilled labor force and the intricate supply chain network Apple currently benefits from in Asia. As of now, analysts estimate that about 25% of iPhones will be produced in India by the end of 2025.
With agency inputs
