President Donald Trump clarified Friday that Samsung would also be subject to new tariffs on iPhones unless tech companies move their production to the United States.
“It would be more. It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair,” Trump told reporters after signing energy executive orders at the White House.
“That’ll start on, I guess, the end of June, it’ll come out,” he added. “I think we’ll have that appropriately done by the end of June.”
Trump made the comment when asked whether he had the authority to tariff Apple at a rate of 25%, a move he announced on social media Friday morning. His event in the Oval Office was at one point interrupted by repeated phone calls that he said were from members of Congress.
He soon confirmed to reporters he was using an iPhone. “Yeah, it’s lucky it is,” Trump responded.
Similar to his Truth Social post, Trump singled out Apple CEO Tim Cook, who donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural committee after the 2024 election and promised in February to spend $500 million in the U.S. on artificial intelligence, silicon engineering, and skills development for students and workers across the country.
“He said he’s going to India to build plants,” Trump said of Cook. “I said, ‘That’s OK to go to India, but you’re not going to sell into here without tariffs.’ And that’s the way it is.”
When pressed on whether Apple could make its products in the U.S. at the same price as it could abroad, Trump claimed that it could, arguing “a lot of it’s so computerized.”
The tariff threat comes as the White House escalates its rhetoric against the likes of Walmart, which warned shoppers last week that they would start encountering higher prices by the end of the month because of the president’s duties. In response, Trump told the retailer this week to “eat” his levies.
“Sometimes the country will eat it, sometimes Walmart will eat it, and sometimes there’ll be something to pay, something extra,” Trump said on Friday. “I don’t want the consumer to pay.”
When asked if he was hurting U.S. companies, Trump added: “They’re not hurting. They’re helping because they’re creating jobs in America. We’re creating tremendous amounts of jobs in America like you’ve never seen. We’re having investment in America. We’re not getting ripped off by every country in the world.”
TRUMP TO TARIFF APPLE 25% DIRECTLY IF PHONES ARE BUILT IN INDIA
Trump also announced Friday morning that he would tariff European Union products at a rate of 50% starting on June 1.
“I’m not looking for a deal,” he said later in the Oval Office. “I mean, we’ve set the deal. It’s at 50%, but again, there’s no tariff if they build their plant here. Now, if somebody comes in and wants to build a plant here, I can talk to them about a little bit of a delay, but, you know, while they’re building their plant, which is something I think that would be appropriate, maybe we’ll determine that.”
