Despite some yuge political and personality differences, President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook have usually gotten along surprisingly well, but now they're getting along to the tune of half a trillion dollars.
That's FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS in Dr. Evil's voice.
When I see any news report involving any large fraction of a trillion or billions by the hundred, it's a sure thing that Big Government is throwing around largesse like candy out of a poorly made piñata. But not this time.
The Cupertino, Calif., tech and consumer electronics giant is such a cash-generating machine that Cook can direct FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS in private investments right here in the U.S. — no Washington largesse required — and then it will happen. Apple announced today that it will "spend and invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years," including "Apple’s work with thousands of suppliers across all 50 states, direct employment, Apple Intelligence infrastructure and data centers, corporate facilities, and Apple TV+ productions in 20 states."
So what does FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS worth of private investment have to do with the Bad Orange Man in the Oval Office?
Trump and Cook met last week at the White House, where POTUS made headlines for blurting out the news before Apple could. Apple, Trump said, is "investing hundreds of billions of dollars. I hope [Cook has] announced it — I hope I didn't announce it, but what the hell? All I do is tell the truth — that's what he told me. Now he has to do it, right?"
Today, Apple made it official.
Teams and facilities will expand in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington, along with an all-new factory in Texas. The new facility will be located in Houston and will assemble advanced servers “previously manufactured outside the U.S.," according to the company.
Apple says it expects to create 20,000 jobs focused on "R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning," according to the company's statement. Cook said, "We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our longstanding U.S. investments."
"They’re going to build here instead because they don’t want to pay the tariffs," Trump said last week.
Even Axios had to call it a "Trump manufacturing win," and you know somebody wrote that headline through gritted teeth. "Apple's announcement — which the company calls its 'largest-ever spend commitment' — is precisely the kind of win President Trump has been looking for with his push to move manufacturing back to the U.S."
I'd just add that it takes more than tariffs to make American manufacturing competitive. We need deregulation and lots of it. If Trump delivers on undoing the record-setting regulatory burden of the Biden years, FIVE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS might just be the start.
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