The recent tariffs announcement was followed by a media briefing in which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answered several questions, with one of them being if President Donald Trump thought that iPhone manufacturing could move to the U.S., with the reply met a firm affirmative. The only question is whether Apple will be willing enough to proceed with the transition because the high labor costs in the region will force the company to raise the prices of its devices. Press Secretary also states that Apple would not have been willing to invest $500 billion in the region if it believed that iPhone production could not move to the U.S. The reply given to the press regarding shifting iPhone production to the U.S. was spotted by MacRumors, with Karoline Leavitt stating that President Donald Trump has complete confidence that the U.S. not only has the labor but also has the resources to make this possible. The Press Secretary also brought up Apple’s previous announcement that it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over four years, stating that if the California-based giant did not believe that such a process was possible, it would not have put up a massive sum. The Trump tariffs are likely meant for Apple to gravitate iPhone production to the U.S., but it is easier said than done. Earlier, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman stated that there was no universe in which Apple would be willing to shift iPhone production to this region as the associated labor costs and other overheads meant that each unit would be highly expensive to make. While the Press Secretary was indeed correct about Apple’s $500 billion investment in the U.S., the details did not mention anything remotely related to iPhone production, though we will not be surprised if other products start getting manufactured here. With China holding immense significance for Apple, the Cupertino firm will have to think of alternatives and fast because, as of yesterday, Trump was planning to add an additional 54 percent in levies, with the total coming to 104 percent. This means that all goods coming out of China would be subject to the aforementioned tariff, raising the prices of every item, including iPhones. Apple has yet to comment on whether its CEO Tim Cook has met with Trump to discuss if there can be some exemptions in the levies, but we will update our readers in the coming days. News Source: The White House Deal of the Day