Trump’s tariff threat to Apple is about bringing back ‘precision manufacturing’: Bessent

Published May 23, 2025 11:33am ET



Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that President Donald Trump‘s threat of a 25% tariff against Apple if it doesn’t move iPhone production to the United States is about bringing back “precision manufacturing.”

“The president is trying to bring back precision manufacturing to the U.S.,” Bessent said during an appearance on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom. “I think that one of our greatest vulnerabilities is this external production, especially in semiconductors, and a large part of Apple’s components are in semiconductors.”

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