President Trump made his seventh trip to Texas this year on Wednesday afternoon to tour a Flextronics plant in Austin where Apple assembles Mac Pro computers. After a 90-minute tour of the facility led by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Trump praised Apple and said "we're seeing the beginning of a very powerful and important plant." He later tweeted: "Today I opened a major Apple Manufacturing plant in Texas that will bring high paying jobs back to America."
That isn't what happened.
In his remarks, Cook noted that before Trump's arrival he had broken ground on Apple's new $1 billion corporate campus less than a mile from it's current Austin campus, and that new facility will vastly expand Apple's non-manufacturing footprint in the area. But the Flextronics plant that has been making Mac Pros since 2013 employs about 500 people and hasn't announced any plans to expand. Trump apparently has a history of claiming credit for the creation of existing manufacturing facilities.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Apple's dominant product is still the iPhone, whose production is centered in China. In the latest quarter, Apple's iPhone sales were about five times as high as revenue for all Macs, including laptops.
-
Is the ceasefire in Gaza really working?Today's Big Question Neither Israel and Hamas has an interest in a full return to hostilities but ‘brutally simple arithmetic’ in region may scupper peace plan long-term
-
Are boomers the real phone addicts?In The Spotlight There’s an ‘explosion in screentime’ among older people – and they’re more vulnerable to misinformation
-
West End Girl: a ‘tremendously touching’ break-up albumThe Week Recommends Lily Allen’s unfiltered new work is ‘littered with relatable moments’
-
Warner Bros. explores sale amid Paramount bidsSpeed Read The media giant, home to HBO and DC Studios, has received interest from multiple buying parties
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial uneaseSpeed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B dealspeed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
