‘Those jobs aren’t coming back’: When Steve Jobs explained why Apple won't make iPhones in the US

With U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a massive 145% tariff on Chinese goods, his administration is ramping up pressure on companies like Apple to shift manufacturing to the United States. The White House hopes these unprecedented levies will eventually push Apple to build iPhones domestically for the first time.

Amid this backdrop, a report has brought renewed attention to a candid moment from Apple’s late co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, who explained years ago why making iPhones in the U.S. may never happen.

The moment took place in February 2011, during a private dinner in California hosted by then-President Barack Obama. Present at the table were some of Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders, including Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Jobs himself. Each guest was encouraged to pose a question to the president — but it was Obama who turned to Jobs and asked: “What would it take to make iPhones in the United States?”


Jobs’s response was blunt and unwavering: “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” a guest at the dinner told The New York Times.

At the time, nearly all of Apple’s products — including iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks — were assembled in China. The reasoning behind this went far beyond labor costs. Apple executives repeatedly pointed to the unmatched scale, speed, and skill of overseas manufacturers. According to the report, U.S. factories simply couldn’t compete with China’s manufacturing ecosystem, which had been developed over decades and offered a level of flexibility and specialization difficult to replicate elsewhere.

As Trump’s tariff push intensifies, Apple has taken strategic steps to cushion the blow. In a recent move, the company reportedly airlifted approximately 600 tons of iPhones — about 1.5 million units — from India using six cargo planes to beat the deadline for new tariffs.

But shifting iPhone production to the U.S. remains a logistical and economic challenge. Apple’s global supply chain, built steadily in China since the 1990s, would take years and billions of dollars to replicate on American soil.

According to the Associated Press, building new manufacturing plants in the U.S. would not only require major investment but could also drive iPhone prices sky-high. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told AP that an iPhone, which currently retails for around $1,000 when made in China or India, could cost over $3,000 if produced in the United States. He also estimated that Apple likely couldn’t fully shift production to the U.S. until at least 2028.

Despite growing political pressure, Jobs’s words from over a decade ago still echo strongly: some jobs — especially at Apple’s scale — simply aren’t coming back.