President-elect Donald J. Trump, during a meeting last Tuesday with the New York Times (NYT), said he received phone calls from Apple CEO Tim Cook presumably to congratulate him on his victory. Trump in that call offered Cook tax incentives for Apple to make its products on American soil.

The Call from Cook

Trump relayed the details of the phone conversation he had with Cook to the NYT in which he said to the Apple CEO that it would be a real achievement for him is he could get Apple to build plants and get Apple to manufacture its products in the U.S. Trump said Cook's reply was a nondescript, "I understand," according to MacRumors.

Trump pressed on citing his plans to Cook to offer corporations large tax and regulation cuts. A recent report stated Apple asked its manufacturing partners to consider moving production to the US, Foxconn through its chairman Terry Gou acceded to the request but is unenthusiastic about the idea of moving primarily due to higher production costs.

In our earlier report, the call for Apple to move the iPhone's production to the US is nothing new. Steve Jobs also agreed with president Obama back in 2011 and considered the possibility but such move upon careful study turned out to be not a viable option. Perhaps Trump's offer to Apple tax and regulations cuts might be a deal maker or not.

It is not that simple

Moving assembly plants of iPhones to the US would mean disrupting Apple's supply chain that is already in place and cemented over the decades since the first generation fo the device. Apple's supply chain is global with most coming from Asia.

Apple lists 200 supply partners that include 753 office and manufacturing facilities worldwide. The full list of countries alone covers continents of the globe excluding Australia and Antarctica, according to Consumerist.

Given this fact, logistics alone in re-routing the supply chain would be a nightmare. Trade routes will have to be studied and agreed upon and that would a serious amount of time. Apple's existing supply chain have been proven lucrative for the company in their efficiency, according to Wired.

Abruptly disrupting that supply chain now would be detrimental to not only Apple but the US as well, Apple being one of the most lucrative business entities in the country, ranked number 3 this year in the Fortune 500 list with revenue of $233.7 billion as of 2015. Watch the video below for more information.