Trump is coming back to Texas, will tour Apple

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is heading to Texas yet again next week — this time to tour Apple’s manufacturing plant in Austin.

The White House announced on Saturday that the president is expected to join Apple CEO Tim Cook on a tour of the company’s facilities in Austin after Apple earlier this year announced it would keep manufacturing its Mac Pro computers there — after the Trump administration granted the tech giant relief from some federal tariffs.

It’s just the latest trip to Texas for the president, who has made a habit of returning to the Lone Star State.

Trump has visited Texas at least a dozen times since taking office, including just last month when he held a rally in Dallas, where he vowed to a roaring crowd, “Donald Trump isn’t going to lose Texas” in 2020. He drew some controversy during that trip after saying at the rally that Texas “made a fortune” on Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Houston and much of Southeast Texas in 2017, killing more than 100 people and destroying or damaging more than 100,000 homes.

The Apple tour comes after a spat between the administration and the company over federal tariffs.

Apple over the summer

threatened to move its manufacturing operations to China because of tariffs on parts it imports from the country. But the Trump administration granted Apple exemptions from those tariffs and Cook announced it would stay in Austin.

Those exemptions were given, despite Trump at the time tweeting that “Apple will not be given Tariff waiver, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China. Make them in the USA, no tariffs!”

Apple has rapidly expanded its operations in Austin, its second-largest hub outside of Cupertino, Calif. The company says it employs 6,200 people there and it is currently working on a $1 billion expansion that it claims will make Apple the largest private employer in the city.