White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is accusing Apple CEO Tim Cook of misleading the administration about shifting iPhone manufacturing out of China and into the United States, arguing that similar assurances were made during President Trump’s first term and never fulfilled.

In an interview with Miranda Devine on “Pod Force One,” set to air Wednesday, Navarro sharply criticized Cook’s approach to tariffs and overseas production. He described the Apple chief as “the king of evading tariffs.”

“We let him get away with it in the first term, because he promised he would basically bring his iPhone production here — or out of China — and he lied through his teeth,” said President Trump’s senior counselor on trade and manufacturing.

Navarro suggested that the pattern is repeating itself under Trump’s current term. “And he’s doing it again. That’s quite par for the course,” Navarro also claimed.

Devine pressed Navarro on whether American industry is seeing a revival during Trump’s second term, pointing out that Apple maintains facilities in the United States and has announced plans to grow its domestic operations.

Navarro dismissed the idea that Apple is leading a manufacturing comeback. “Not with Apple. I mean, they’re going to India, and to me, that’s not a whole lot better than being in China,” Navarro fired back. “But, that’s the exception, I think, that proves the rule.”

President Trump has also publicly criticized Cook — at times referring to him as “Tim Apple” — over the company’s decision to expand production in India rather than bring more operations back to American soil.

Last May, Trump warned Apple that it could face a 25% tariff if it failed to relocate production to the United States. Analysts have estimated that an iPhone built entirely in America could carry a price tag as high as $3,500.

Shortly after returning to the White House, Apple unveiled plans to invest $500 billion in U.S.-based projects.

In February 2025, the company announced it would enlarge its footprint “in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington” and construct “a new factory in Texas.”

At the time, Apple said the initiative would create as many as 20,000 jobs in the United States.

“Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’re proud to significantly expand our footprint in Houston with the production of Mac mini starting later this year,” Cook also said in a Tuesday statement.

“We began shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of schedule, and we’re excited to accelerate that work even further.”

Over the past year, Apple’s pledged investment in the United States has climbed to $600 billion.

The company has also committed that by the end of 2026, all new “cover glass for iPhone and AppleWatch” will be manufactured at a facility in Kentucky.

The administration’s tariff strategy recently faced a legal setback when the Supreme Court ruled against the use of certain emergency authorities to impose import duties. Still, Navarro indicated that the White House has alternative tools at its disposal.

The court, in a 6-3 decision, found that Trump overstepped his authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to levy tariffs aimed at correcting trade imbalances.

“It did strike down the IEEPA tariffs, the emergency tariffs — it did not strike down [Sections] 232, 301, 122, 338, all the different powers that the president has been delegated by Congress and can use.”

Navarro has long criticized Apple’s reliance on Chinese manufacturing, once describing the company’s overseas production strategy as “the longest-running soap opera in Silicon Valley.”

Reiterating his argument on “Pod Force One,” Navarro underscored what he sees as the broader impact of the administration’s trade policy.

“I mean, we have, Miranda, this is like mind boggling,” he said on “Pod Force One.”

“We have $18 trillion of new investment pledged since the tariffs and because of the tariffs,” he added. “I mean, as President Trump has said, you don’t pay the tariffs if you produce here.”

{Matzav.com}