The Donald and Apple: ignorance trumps reality

f you will forgive for a moment the intrusion of international politics into this space, this is too good to resist. American presidential candidate Donald Trump recently thundered from his lectern that he intended to force Apple to “build their damn computers and things” in the United States, should he be elected. This, my friends, is hilarious.

Trump, you may be aware, is a property developer of some note, who has had both success and failure. He is not unfamiliar with the ways of business. He is also a reality TV star, having fronted a program called The Apprentice in which he sets people arbitrary tasks and promotes or fires them based on his judgment of how well they performed. He is not unfamiliar with the ways of absolute power.

His comments about Apple demonstrate that he’s forgotten in which of these realms he is currently living.

You see, while Apple may build its damn computers and things outside the US for the most part (the exception is the Mac Pro – a damn computer that is assembled in Austin, Texas), the various components that go into them are largely American-made. The CPUs are American, the glass on the front of an iPad is American, the aluminium chassis are American. These things get made in America by Americans with specialised skills, then shipped to China for assembly. Like so many people who don’t read publications like this one, he is unaware of supply chains, ecosystems and channels.

The part of the manufacturing process that takes place outside the US (in China, largely) is assembly, which requires comparatively little skill. It can be done in China competitively. It can’t be done in the US competitively. China has built its economy around a massive workforce that can live on wages that seem very low by Western standards. That’s because there is an ecosystem around these manufacturing facilities that supports workers on those wages. Again, Trump is apparently unaware of channels.

For Apple to assemble its damn computers and things in the US would mean either paying its workers a wage on which they could not live or charging a price for the product that few could afford (seen the price of a Mac Pro lately?). That’s business.

Of course, Trump may think the president can order Apple to build its damn computers and things in the US, pay its workers a living wage and sell its products at affordable prices even though it means making a loss. It doesn’t sound terribly free-market capitalist to me. But Trump’s had enough government assistance in the form of subsidies and tax breaks that he might just think that’s how capitalism is.

Come to think of it, maybe he’s right about that part.

He seems to imagine the US president is like the host of The Apprentice, ordering people about without accountability, demanding that tasks be performed regardless of logic or purpose. I have never been president myself, but I’m reasonably certain that’s not the case.

I’m also reasonably certain the CEO of Apple is not obliged to obey orders from the president. Nor is the CEO of any other company. Assuming that Trump is not solely picking on Apple and intends ordering other American companies to build their products in the US, I suspect he’ll have a lot of CEOs laughing in his face.

As I mentioned earlier, though, Trump is not unfamiliar with business. As a CEO, I am sure he would not automatically obey a presidential directive to do business any other way than as he saw fit.

More than likely, his Apple rant is no more than bluster. The kind of bluster that delivers ratings in reality TV shows and poll numbers in election campaigns. It’s designed to get press, not to resemble any action that would ever be taken by an actual president of the USA. To that extent, I guess, this column is playing right into his hands and giving him the attention he seeks.

But it was just so darn funny. 

Matthew JC Powell is a technology commentator, philosopher and father of two, in no particular order.