Donald Trump’s plan to force Apple to manufacture in the USA would “bankrupt the economy”

Back in 2011, President Barack Obama allegedly asked Steve Jobs why Apple couldn’t bring production of all of its products to the USA. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” was Jobs’ response.

Donald Trump, the former reality TV star and potential next president – and no, that still doesn’t feel right to write down – has said he won’t take “those jobs aren’t coming back” for an answer. “Apple and all of these great companies will be making their products in the United States, not in China, Vietnam,” said Trump in a victory speech recently.

This isn’t the first time the Republican front-runner has made this promise, but given the way he fires off madcap ideas like someone who genuinely believes the ridiculous mantra that there’s “no such thing as a bad idea”, it makes sense to only really pay attention to the ones he keeps coming back to. So, Apple is coming back to America?

It’s not that simple, even if there were a simple way to simply block out the global economy, or source all the components Apple needed within the US (remember that Trump has also said he wants to put a 45% import duty on Chinese products – which presumably would include components, the majority of which are sourced from Asia).

“These are questions of economics and talent. Where can you get the workers you need and what does it cost to make something? I think it would bankrupt the economy,” said Bradley Tusk, the CEO of Tusk Ventures, to ABC News. “You can have tax policies, but at the end of the day, people have a right to make products where they want to make them.”

A better approach, according to Ivan Feinseth, chief investment officer at Tigress Financial Partners – also speaking to ABC News – would be to incentivise US production. “You should economic-incentivise the behavior you want, not punish. For the most part, it works.”

That said, maybe this will just be another one of Trump’s forgotten promises, like his vow to boycott using an iPhone in the wake of Apple’s ongoing fight with the FBI. That pledge lasted a matter of days before he was spotted tweeting from his iPhone.

Image: Dru Bloomfield used under Creative Commons

Donald Trump thinks Apple should allow the FBI to access whatever iPhone it chooses if they suspect the owner of being a terrorist.

Trump, who by all accounts is about as far-right as the mainstream political spectrum will allow, has slammed the US company for refusing the American law-enforcement agency its request to look inside the phone of Syed Farook, who with his wife killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December last year. 

The FBI wants the tech giant to provide special software that would let the police view “through the backdoor” of devices of people they’re investigating for serious, alleged or proven (with the need for more information), criminal offences. 

But, in this instance, Apple said no to the FBI. And the Republican presidential candidate got in quite a state in response, asking: “Who do they think they are?” 

On Tuesday, federal judge Sheri Pym ordered Apple to build the software that would enable the FBI access to Farook’s iPhone. 

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said the company wouldn’t comply. He called the government’s demands “dangerous” and feels technology should stop short of giving authorities a “master key” to encryption. 

“The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancement that protect our customers from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals,” said Cook.

The US Justice Department spoke out and said that it was necessary for Apple to aid investigations. It said the victims of the terrorist attack deserved all avenues to be explored.

Trump agrees with the police. He said: “We have to use common sense.

“We have to open it up, and we have to use our heads.

“We should find out what happened, why it happened, and maybe there [are] other people involved and we have to do that,” added the Republican front-runner in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.

Donald Trump on ISIS: “I don’t want them using our internet”

Donald Trump has expanded a little on his plans to rope in Bill Gates to help shut down parts of the internet.

Trump was grilled on his earlier comments during last night’s Republican debates, and called the question “so easy to answer”.

“ISIS is using the internet better than we are using the internet, and it was our idea,” said the Republican front-runner and former Apprentice host – two professions which logically shouldn’t fit on the same CV.

“What I wanted to do was get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they’re doing.”

“Second, we should be able to penetrate the internet and find out exactly where ISIS is and everything about ISIS, and we can do that if we use our good people.”

Is that clear now? No? Don’t worry, he’s got more where that came from. Business International quotes Trump as responding to Rand Paul with some, uh, “interesting” remarks: “As far as the internet is concerned: I’m not talking about closing the internet. I’m talking about parts of Syria, parts of Iraq, where ISIS is. Spotting it. Now, you could close it.”

Uh? What?

“What I like even better than that is getting our smartest and getting our best to infiltrate their internet. So that we know exactly where they’re going, exactly where they’re going to be. I like that better!”

I’m not convinced he’s quite grasped the concept of “the internet”. He could do with some new advisors, I reckon:

Here are his original comments that prompted the question:

If you don’t want to hear his mesmerising tones, here’s the quote in full: “We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet. We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech’. These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people.”

Just imagine his little face in January 2017 when President Trump calls up a bewildered Bill Gates to press the red button. The guy is in for a huge surprise about how the world works.

Here’s an interesting one: if Trump had just invested his money, rather than made a splash in business, it’s estimated that he’d be worth $10 billion more than he is now. Still, I’ve seen enough movies to know how this ends:

Image: Gage Skidmore, used under Creative Commons