Ryan Haines / Android Authority
In the tenth episode of the fifth season of The SimpsonsMr. Burns opens a casino and begins to lose your mind and become a parody of Howard Hughes’ mental deterioration. At one point he has a small model of a plane that he is called “spruce moose”, and he will fly it with Smithers. Of course, Smithers says the plane is just a toy, so they can’t get into it, much less aircraft it. Mr. Burns, deadly severe, pulls a gun on Smithers and says, “Hop. In.” Smithers, confused, stare at Mr. Burns, without knowing what to do.
I can imagine CEO directors in companies making the world Smartphones Feels a lot like Smithers right now, with President Donald Trump playing that part of Mr. Burns.
Yesterday, according to BloomPresident Trump announced that he would impose smartphone manufacturers to encourage them to make phones in the United States. First, in a social media post earlier on Friday, he said these customs would apply especially to Apple at a rate of 25%. However, during an orientation in the White House, he said that similar tariff rates would also apply to other manufacturers, and called out Samsung specifically. Of course, Samsung is not an American company, so we are not sure why it ever needs to make phones here.
In any case, as it has become common when Trump discusses tariff rates, he did not outlined a specific plan or committed himself to a particular timeline. Trump said that import fees would be “appropriate” and “ready” by the end of June. That’s all we need to continue.
The problem here is that what President Trump seems to want is impossible. Apple, Samsung, Google and all other smartphone manufacturers simply can’t make a phone call in the United States. It is almost as impossible as jumping into a toy flight for a trip to the Belgian Congo in 17 minutes.
Creating Android phones in the United States is impossible
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Every manufacturer will face three almost insurmountable problems in creating a phone call in the United States. The first and most significant is infrastructure. The factories you need to create all the aspects of a smartphone – screens, silicon, batteries, camera sensors, etc. – simply do not exist in the United States. In order for any company even to begin with an attempt to make phones here, it must spend billions (or possibly trillion) just to make the infrastructure to do so – and it will take a decade or more to complete.
Secondly, this company will need talented people to operate these factories. The United States does not have any of these people, so they need to be found and trained, which will cost lots of money and also take years. Although the company tried to fragment this problem by pulling people in from other countries who already know what to do, these workers will have to get enough money to live in the United States, which would be expensive. These people will also be immigrants, who we already know Trump doesn’t like.
The United States lacks infrastructure, labor and materials needed to create phones. They are simply not here.
If a company somehow exceeded these problems – which, remember, would be practically impossible – would lack of materials still limit it. Certain rare soil metals needed to make smartphone components do not often exist in the United States. For example, Scandium (SC) is used in alloys when making batteries, and the last time the United States produced it was 50 years ago. Even if you found all the rare soil minerals needed for a phone here in the United States at some miracle, you will then have to build sophistication plants to treat these minerals and of course hire people to do the workforce.
Finally, a company that found out a way to pull all that of that would eventually be left with a phone that needs to cost tens of thousands of dollars to earn enough profits to pay down the first investments. This phone will also be a “first generation” unit for any purpose, since all supply chain items would be brand new. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a $ 10,000 smartphone that isn’t as good as a $ 300 I can buy right now.
But what about a phone ‘mostly’ made in the United States?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Tuesday the past week Trump talked to Apple CEO Tim Cook. During this discussion, Cook allegedly told Trump about Apple’s plans to dispose of a lot of its current production in China to India instead. Trump, not impressed, asked Cook to stop building plants in India and instead turn away from China to domestic production.
“I had a small problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said of the conversation. “He builds all over India. I don’t want to [him] Builds in India. “Trump also didn’t seem impressed with Apple’s obligation to invest an astonishing $ 500 billion in the United States over the next four years.
This information strongly suggests that President Trump wants an all-or-inenting solution. He seems to believe that moving smartphone production to the United States is not only possible, but can easily be done – by June this year it seems.
Although smartphone manufacturers moved a little more production to the United States, it would cause the phases to skyrocket in price.
Let me play Devil’s Advocate. Let’s assume Trump just plays hardball here, and secretly would be ok with a smartphone that is most Made in the United States. This is an absolutely thing to do, but it will inevitably increase consumer costs for a telephone exponentially. China is so good at making smartphone components and can make it for far less money than almost any other country. Each component that is not made in China and instead of increasing the cost of the component to an alarming degree. This will force the smartphone company to send the increased costs to you and me, the consumer.
I do not know the figures here, because I do not work in the smartphone production industry, but it will not surprise me if the costs of doing this would actually exceed the cost of Trump’s proposed tariffs of 25%. In that case, it would actually be better for companies to increase the cost of phones in response to the customs and not change anything else.
How will smartphone manufacturers respond?
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Okay, so we know Trump wants smartphones to be made in the United States. We also know that a phone 100% made in the United States would be practically impossible. Any significant shift from the status quo to a smartphone with more American engagement will make the phone much more expensive. So what will the companies do?
Honestly, I don’t know. They are stuck just like blacksmiths and need to figure out how to squeeze into the spruce moose. I’m sure they’ve tried to explain this to Trump. Tim Cook is very intelligent, so I’m sure he came well prepared for the conversation with Trump, with information on why a “team in the US” iPhone is an insurmountable problem. However, it has had no impact on Trump’s conviction to make it happen.
What Trump seems to want is impossible, and even a mid -slope solution would be unsustainable. The best solution can be to take the tariffs and make phones be 25% more expensive.
The only way out that I can see is that the companies take the tariff. Apple, Samsung, and all other manufacturers planning to sell phones here, must be involved in a 25% price increase to cover the increased production costs. Of course, it will believe that consumers need to spend much more on phones than they have done in the past. Just to give you an idea of what it means, iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25 Both start at $ 799, and an increase of 25% would push them to $ 999. That’s a significant change.
We’ll see how this shakes out in the coming weeks and months. One thing, however, is certain: Trump’s dream of a smartphone made in the United States is not coming.