How Trump’s Tariff Threat Made Apple Jump

“The tariffs are amazing,” said President Donald Trump last Friday. “It’s my favorite word in the dictionary, the word tariff. It’s such a beautiful word.”

The president was speaking to state governors who were in D.C. for the National Governors Association meeting, and he was bragging that he had met with Apple’s CEO Tim Cook earlier in the week, who had told him that Apple was going to be investing “hundreds of billions of dollars” in the U.S. instead of abroad—because of the threat of tariffs.

Suddenly, Trump paused. “I hope he announced it,” he said, realizing that perhaps he had jumped the gun.