True. Bush did cut down on immigration by tanking the economy so badly the Mexicans no longer wanted to come.
As for Apple moving, if this went through who knew what else he’d do. He might try to take over companies because after all Trump is so smart that he could run them better than their current CEOs.
that’s only true for HP.
“Competitive” with whom? AIUI, some of the Middle American Radicals who make up his base seem to think in terms of economic autarky or self-sufficiency – i.e., let American businesses manufacture in America for American markets, and don’t bother with exporting or importing. Thus, no need to compete with foreign companies at all.
See Juche.
Protectionist measures are not so bad, its when other people respond with their own protectionism that it starts to suck.
I interpret them to mean that he knows what he says is bullshit and he’s a massive liar. As if that’s news.
Um, the immediate effect of this protectionist measure would be a massive cost increase for U.S. consumers for Apple, and many many other, products. Even if nobody retaliates, it would suck for us instantly.
They’re Apple customers. They’ve been asking for it. 
First they came for Apple and I did not speak out because Apple sucks and they deserved it.
Let me ask a piggyback question: I have read that China has a virtual monopoly on chip manufacture (though not design). Isn’t that a threat to national security, given how dependent our military and economy are on electronic equipment? If not, why not? Could we start making chips in large quantities here next week if China decided to embargo technology exports to the US?
We can leave aside the fact that this would be economic suicide from a Chinese perspective. Assume that it’s 20 years from now and they could get by on trade with Europe and the rest of Asia or something.
This question - and it is a question, not an argument disguised as one - should not be taken in any way as support for our potential future hairpiece-in-chief.
I think this is the key. Trump is saying anything that seems to work and doesn’t care if it makes sense. He figures if he can say anything and get away with it as a presidential candidate, he’ll be able to do the same as a President. The people who are dumb enough to vote for Donald Trump will be dumb enough to believe whatever excuses he offers.
Trump isn’t going after the Republican base; he’s going after the idiot base. He’s hoping there are enough idiots out there and he can get them all moving in the same direction in order to get elected. And then afterwards he can ignore them.
@Really Not All That Bright:
A look at the Wiki article on Intel’s manufacturing sites says they have 7 in the States, 1 in each Israel, Ireland and China. Maybe cheap chips are only done in China? Maybe they do most “assembling”? I seriously doubt the US military relies on China for this.
I don’t think it’s true. There are plenty of large semi-conductor foundries outside China. Taiwan, I think, is still the largest producer, and the US still has a non-trivial number.
And even if it were true, if China stopped selling them, I think you’d see something similar to what happened when they cut sales of heavy-metals a few years ago. The price went up for a few months while other countries had to rely on stockpiles and stuff already in the supply chain, and then went down again as non-Chinese production came online.
Well if it were true it would be a bigger deal than that. These are very expensive and complicated plants.
No doubt, but then, I can’t imagine a heavy metal mine is something you just slap together either.
Google suggests its two years to build a fab-plant. But there’s already a ton of IC’s kicking around, so I think new production could start before the supply got really scarce. Which isn’t to say that it wouldn’t be disruptive, new celphones and laptops would probably be pretty unaffordable for a few years, but I doubt it would rise to the level of a threat to national security, as RnatB suggests. Especially now that most computers have gotten to the point where they have fairly long lifetimes.
Protectionism is sometimes a good idea and sometimes a bad idea, depending on times and circumstances. Check out Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, by South Korean economist Ha-Joon Chang.
Is this the same Apple that is an Irish corporation and pays no US tax?