Trump Is Taking Credit for Opening an Apple Facility That’s Already Fully Operational
Written by SOURCE on November 21, 2019
In an attempt to promote U.S. manufacturing jobs, Donald Trump headed to Texas on Wednesday to tour a facility that assembles Apple computers.
Shortly after the visit, POTUS took to Twitter claiming he had “just opened” an Apple plant “that will bring high paying jobs back to America.” But it seems no one told the president that the Austin facility has been open for years—well before he took office.
According to CNBC, the factory POTUS toured has been assembling MacBook Pros since 2013, when the tech giant announced it would bring some its manufacturing back to the States. Furthermore, the facility in question isn’t actually operated by Apple, but rather the company’s contractor Flex Ltd. Twitter users were quick to call out Trump for the false claim:
To be fair, it’s possible that Trump was conflating two Apple-related events. On the day of Trump’s tour, the company announced the construction of a new campus near the Flex Ltd. facility. The campus is reportedly part of the company’s nationwide expansion, which aims “to increase its investment in manufacturing, engineering and other jobs across the U.S.” Apple says it expects to contribute $350 billion to the economy between 2018 and 2023, and hire an additional 20,000 employees across the country.
Apple says the 133-acre campus is scheduled to open in 2022 with 5,000 employees. Though the company claims it’ll eventually grow to 15,000 works, Jack Nicas of the New York Times reports most of these employees will hold white-collar positions, not manufacturing jobs, as Trump has suggested.
It’s also worth noting that the facility was not part of the president’s tour, nor did it open on Wednesday—so, who knows what the hell he’s talking about.
Trump also said he’s looking at exempting Apple of a coming round of China tariffs. “We have to treat Apple on a somewhat similar basis as we treat Samsung,” he said. But so far, the United States and Beijing have yet to make a trade deal.
You can check out more reactions to Trump’s inaccurate claims about the Apple plant below. And yes, there were plenty of “Tim Apple” jokes in the mix.
