Trump’s tariffs weakens Apple, boosts Samsung as MAGA support slides

Trump wants the US to return to a manufacturing powerhouse but his grand plan has inadvertently given a leg up to a rival of one of America’s biggest companies.

Samsung makes most of its phones in Vietnam, which has avoided Trump’s crippling tariffs via negotiation.

Donald Trump wants the US to return to a manufacturing powerhouse but his grand plan has hit a snag as he has inadvertently given a leg up to a rival of one of America’s biggest companies.

In a high stakes battle, akin to Coca-Cola versus Pepsi, Samsung and Apple have been jostling for smartphone dominance.

The two companies control about 40 per cent of the global smartphone market, taking the lead depending on the quarter. But the contest risks being blown wide open in Donald Trump’s trade war, with the South Korean company a likely winner.

Why? Apple assembles most of its iPhones in China - which has been slugged with a 145 per cent tariffs on exports to the US. But Samsung puts most of its phones together in Vietnam, which has only been hit with a 10 per cent levy.

There has been flip-flopping from the White House as Apple’s share price has dived.

Late on Friday last week (April 11) smartphones were spared from the tariffs before Trump thundered on his Truth social media platform that nobody was “off the hook”.

“There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20 per cent Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket,” Trump said.

Apple - a symbol of American tech might as the world’s most valuable company - has found itself collateral damage in the new cold war between China and the US. It has committed to more manufacturing in the US, and makes some iPhone components in Texas and other states. But a return to full-blown manufacturing is unlikely.

It’s not just that American-made iPhones would be more expensive, it’s unlikely they would be made at all, says Tim Cook.

Apple’s Chinese contractors employ 3 million people. Cook says America - which has a population of more than 340 million - just doesn’t have the concentration of skills to produce the quality of products that Apple customers demand.

But while Apple has been thrust into the spotlight in Trump’s trade war, Korean rival Samsung has been quietly shuffling in the wings.

Essentially it is a tale of two communist regimes - one that favours pragmatism over testosterone-fuelled chest beating.

Waiting for each other to blink: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Samsung’s assembly nation of choice, Vietnam, was initially one of the biggest losers in Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, hit with a 46 per cent tax on all imports to the US.

But it will now receive the same baseline 10 per cent tariff as most other countries.

That is despite having the third biggest trade surplus with the US - it exports more to America than its buys - behind China and Mexico.

Yet, unlike China, it avoided the crippling tariffs, and it’s because of the art of the deal.

Trump said he had a “very productive” call with Vietnam leader To Tam, who was prepared to make a series of concessions. Indeed, before the call, Vietnam had agreed to buy more American goods, including planes and agricultural products.

Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen where iPhones are assembled.

But China has no appetite for such appeasement, with President Xi Jinping dig in.

Tit-for-tat exchanges have pushed US levies on China to 145 per cent, while Beijing has retaliated, taxing US imports at 125 per cent.

The brouhaha as part of Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ pledge has weakened Apple while giving Samsung a boost, underscoring how chaotic the US president’s plans are. Yet he maintains the tariffs will be “medicine” and will be beneficial in the longer term.

But as markets have become “a bit yippy”, as Trump put it, the White House has begun tying itself in knots.

Late on Friday (US time) it exempted products such as smartphones, laptop computers, memory chips and other tech-essential products from Chinese tariffs. But those exemptions were only a temporary reprieve, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned at the weekend, before Trump contradicted him.

Samsung Galaxy S25 series.

Trump is holding onto the hope that President Xi will make a deal like Vietnam. He wants to continue to apply pressure to Beijing, knowing that if Apple was eventually forced to pull out from manufacturing in China and follow Samsung, assembling more products in Vietnam or elsewhere, it would spark big job losses - the type Xi can ill afford.

China, however, is known for playing a longer game.

And Trump is facing pressure back at home. Several polls have revealed a fall in his approval ratings. According to Echelon Insights, Trump’s approval rating is now at 47 per cent with 51 percent disapproving. This is down from 51 per cent approving, with 43 per cent disapproving in January.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the US doesn’t have enough skilled workers to make iPhones.

As for his handling of the tariffs, Echelon found 48 per cent believe that Donald Trump does not have a thorough plan and end-goal for tariffs, compared with 42 per cent who say he does.

Most Americans indeed want the country to be great again, particularly in the rust belt states that have seen their wealth decline as companies based in west coast states and New York have become richer as they offshore more of their manufacturing.

But nobody wants to wake up and find essential items like a phone or laptop have surged in price, particularly in a cost of living crisis. And many economists say American consumers will be the ones hit hardest from the trade war.

Billionaire investor Howard Marks, of Oaktree Capital, asks why would a company be prepared to make that sort of investment when tariffs might be subject to renegotiation?

Just look at the flurry of conflicting messages from the White House at the weekend.

The US has become predictably unpredictable. But in the near-term, Suwon-headquartered Samsung appears to have the edge over Cupertino-based Apple in the race to ‘Make America Great Again’.

Originally published as Trump’s tariffs weakens Apple, boosts Samsung as MAGA support slides