National Review Condemns Trump for Acting Like a ‘King’ With ‘Ominous Threat’
Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Donald Trump speak during a tour of an Apple manufacturing plant, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019, in Austin. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
National Review condemned president Donald Trump on Wednesday for acting like a “king” in an editorial addressing his “ominous threat to Apple.”
“If you had told people ten years ago that in 2025, the president of the United States would be casually issuing orders to a specific corporation while threatening unconstitutional taxation for failure to comply, and asked them to guess which party that president was a member of, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say the Republican Party,” began the editorial. “Yet Donald Trump has done just that with his musings directed at Apple about iPhone production.”
In a Truth Social post late last week, the president wrote, “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”
“If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!” he added.
“Imagine for a second President Michael Bloomberg threatening 25 percent federal excise taxes on Smith & Wesson products if the company doesn’t stop selling guns he considers to be ‘assault weapons.’ Or President Elizabeth Warren threatening 25 percent tariffs on Walmart because she thinks their workers should get better health benefits and higher pay. Or President Bernie Sanders threatening to tax FedEx shipments at 25 percent if the company doesn’t agree to a labor contract with the Teamsters,” continued the conservative magazine, reflecting on Trump’s attempt at forcing Apple’s hand.
“The president of the United States is not a king whose words carry the power of law, yet businessmen have found it smart to act as though they do because they know the federal regulatory apparatus provides the president with avenues too numerous to count for punishing businesses he doesn’t like,” concluded the editorial. “One of the nice things about the United States is that the government doesn’t tell businesses how they have to be run. And one of the nice things about Republicans winning elections is supposed to be having a president who believes that.”
Trump has spent the early days of his presidency insisting that iPhones ought to be produced in America, and lashing out at Apple’s CEO, Cook, for not complying.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him: ‘Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion. But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India if you want to take care of India,’” mused Trump earlier this month. “I said: ‘Tim, look, we’ve treated you really good. We put up with all the plants that you built in China for years. Now you got to build us. We’re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves. They’re doing very well. We want you to build here.'”
