Even Apple fans should be seriously worried about Donald Trump

Seemingly not content with making outrageous claims about Mexico, Islam and women, Donald Trump has now expanded his illogical, dangerous and downright ignorant rampages into include the world of technology. 

In order to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the president of Liberty University, Virginia, felt that the individual best suited to delivering a speech on the importance of racial harmony in the modern age (we kid you not) was presidential candidate Donald Trump. 

Alongside repeated affirmations that he wasn't "politically correct" and that he really was serious about building a border wall between the US and Mexico, Trump made a comment about Californian tech giant Apple.

"We have such amazing people in this country: smart, sharp, energetic, they're amazing. I was saying make America great again, and I actually think we can say now, and I really believe this, we're gonna get things coming... We’re going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of other countries."

In the context of Trump's rhetoric of "Making America great again", such lofty grunts are likely to produce a whoop from massed supporters. But from legal, business, technical and manufacturing perspectives, it doesn't make any sense. 

From screens to batteries, chips to lenses, the vast majority of everything that Apple puts into an iPhone is made from component manufacturers based in Asian countries. They specialise in the mass production of electronics, in the timely delivery of crucial components, with assembly lines tooled for varying demands - something the US currently lacks (though the conditions of workers in many of those countries should be scrutinised and questioned). 

In order for Apple to "bring its manufacturing home", Trump would have to create laws to alter the nature of an open market to prevent Apple outsourcing its projects to other countries. 

Say Trump was even partially successful in changing how American capitalism works, forcing Apple to make iPhones in the US, the cost of buying the latest handset would skyrocket to cover the cost of manufacturing in the US. Writing on the same question in 2012, clinical finance professor Baizhu Chen suggested that Apple would add more than "$25 billion in labour costs" were they to move iPhone production to the US, totally eroding the company's profit margins.

But hey, if Donald Trump can make a noise that the wider American public like the sound of, he'll shout it from the roof tops - no matter how stupid the sound is. 

[Via: Gizmodo]