iPhones will never be US-made — even if Trump sprinkles 'pixie dust': expert

President Donald Trump has no chance of getting Apple to make iPhones in the United States, even if he deploys supernatural powers.

NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Friday that one analyst told her even Trump's threats of a tariff wouldn't result in new Apple manufacturing in the U.S.

Speaking to "Deadline: White House" on Friday, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers and Romans attacked both the targeting of Apple and the threats of a 50% tariff on European Union countries.

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He explained that it isn't merely wine and cheese coming from Europe, but "one of the most important imports" from the EU is precision machinery. That's machinery used in factories to do highly detailed jobs using advanced tools.

But it was Romans who explained that the "profit motive in the United States is the best and sharpest in the world." She means that corporations will do whatever makes the best financial sense. So, in the case of Apple, making an iPhone in the U.S. would dramatically increase the price of the product.

In April, Mashable cited "Wedbush Securities' head of technology research Dan Ives, who says that a modern iPhone manufactured in the U.S. would cost around $3,500 (he didn't mention a specific model)."

It means it might be more cost-effective to endure a 25% tariff than to relocate iPhone manufacturing to the U.S.

Romans cited an analyst who called it a "fairy tale" that the iPhone would ever be made in the United States.

"Even if you, you know, sprinkle the pixie dust on there, you wouldn't be able to get them made here in the United States."

She also noted, "Companies are just trying to figure out, how do you continue to make money and pursue, you know, your shareholder return in this very complicated —"

Wallace cut in, asking, "Can I answer that for you in case they ask you? You do it by having checks and balances on a flagrantly corrupt and autocratic president, by making sure that Democrats win in big ways. I mean, are they giving more money to Democrats?"

Romans said that hearing Trump talk about controlling corporations sometimes "sounds more like a big government moving the levers and picking the winners and losers in some cases." She compared it to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

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