Trump lures Apple to put $100 billion more in US

President Donald Trump and Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, announced Wednesday that Apple would devote $100 billion to additional investment in the United States, the company’s latest move to buy more components from US suppliers and avoid the president's threat of tariffs on iPhones.

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The announcement, in the gold-adorned Oval Office, came after Mr Cook presented Trump with a 24-karat gold gift and lavished him with praise. Mr Cook highlighted the creation of Apple's American Manufacturing Program, focused on bringing more of the company's supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the United States.

The president “asked us to think about what more we could commit to doing,” Mr Cook said at the White House, “and Mr President, we took that challenge very seriously.”

Since Trump retook office, Mr Cook has appeared to walk a careful line in satisfying some of the president's wishes, if not the largest ones. Despite a threat from Trump in May of a 25% tariff on smartphones, he has not fulfilled the president's demand to make iPhones in the United States.

Apple said earlier this year that it planned to spend $500 billion and hire 20,000 people in the United States over the next four years, and open a factory in Texas to make the machines that power its push into artificial intelligence. Apple made similar, smaller pledges during Joe Biden’s administration and Trump's first term, though it has yet to follow through on some of them.

ULTIMATUM TO COMPANIES