Trump to ‘look at’ Apple tariff exemption

President Trump on Wednesday toured an Apple manufacturing plant in Texas with company CEO Tim Cook, where he demurred on the possibility of exempting the tech giant from tariffs, pointing to the need to sustain a balanced playing field.

“We’re looking at that, and the problem we have is you have Samsung — it’s a great company but it’s a competitor of Apple. And It’s not fair because we have a trade deal with Korea,” Trump told reporters from the factory floor in Austin, flanked by Cook, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump.

“But we have to treat Apple on a somewhat similar basis as we treat Samsung,” the president added. “Now with all of that being said, we’re doing very nicely with China, but I like the way it is now.”

The president toured the Austin factory with Cook and his top aides, viewing the production process and touting it as a win that the company was basing more of its manufacturing in the U.S. At one point, Trump held up a component that had the words “Designed by Apple in California; Assembled in the USA” engraved on it.