"If they're to sell it in America, I want it to be built in the US": Trump

He made the remarks on Friday (US local time), while signing several key executive orders, including one on ushering in nuclear energy.

While speaking to the media about the issue of having iPhones manufactured in the US, Trump said, "It would be more, it would also be Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn't be fair. So anybody that makes that product".

He said that if the plants are based in the US, there would be no tariffs.

"When they build their plant here, there's no tariff. So they're building plants here but I had an understanding with him (Tim Cook) that he wouldn't be doing this. He said he's going to India to build plants. I said, that's okay to go to India, but you're not going to sell into here without tariffs. And that's the way it is."

Trump said as most of the work is computerised, he had faith that the prices wouldn't shoot up for the American consumers. He said, "A lot of it's so computerized now. These plants are amazing if you look at them, but they can do that. Apple's coming in with 500 billion dollars. So are the chip companies coming in. The biggest 500 billion, 200 billion, 250 billion dollars they're spending. But we're talking about the iPhone now. And you know, the iPhone, if they're to sell it in America, I want it to be built in the United States. They're able to do that."

Earlier on Friday, Trump said that Apple will have to pay a 25 per cent import tariffs if its mobile handsets sold in US are not produced in the boundaries of the country.

In a social media post on his Truth Social, US President Donald Trump wrote, "I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,"

"If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter," he further added in the post.

Speaking about his administration's decision to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students, Trump said, "Billions of dollars have been paid to Harvard. How ridiculous is that?... And they have USD 52 billion as an endowment... Harvard's going to have to change its ways."

Earlier on Thursday, the White House said, "Enrolling foreign students is a privilege, not a right." It accused Harvard leadership of turning "their once-great institution into a hot-bed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators."

Harvard and the Trump administration have been engaged in a conflict for months as the administration demands the university make changes to the programming of the institution, hiring and administration to remove on-campus antisemitism and remove what it termed "racist 'diversity, equity and inclusion' practices." The administration has targeted foreign students and employees, whom it believes were part of the contentious campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

During the signing of executive orders, the White House in a statement noted that the US President took a series of executive actions to "unleash nuclear energy in the U.S. as part of the administration's effort to secure the energy future of America and unleash American energy dominance".

The White House also noted in another statement that US President Trump also signed an executive order implementing Gold Standard Science to rebuild public trust in the national science enterprise. (ANI)