JD Vance is literally Silicon Valley's candidate, sponsored by PayPal's Peter Thiel, and likely to take over if Trump gets into office.
It's absolutely something Apple's head would do. They're not exactly know for their morality. FoxxConn workers can tell you that as they roll out of the suicide nets.
Just so you know, Foxconn supplies almost every electronics manufacturer. Your phone? Foxconn. Your TV? Foxconn. Your PC? Foxconn. Your radio in the kitchen? Foxconn. Doesn’t matter which name is on the outside.
PALO ALTO, U.S. For Apple, Hon Hai Precision Industry is not just a subcontractor. It is a business partner. And though both sides are taking steps to reduce their mutual dependence, their fortunes remain very much entwined.
Their ties deepened in 2000, when Foxconn Technology Group -- as Hon Hai is known -- landed an order to produce Apple's iMacs. The duo had worked together on parts production before, but this was a major turning point. Apple's high quality standards forced the Taiwanese supplier to sharpen its technological edge.
JD Vance is the tech bro VC candidate. There’s a huge difference between Tim Cook and 90s boom era tech bros. Apple’s success doesn’t give a fuck about middle-school mentality masculinity. Not every tech company is so insecure.
I'll never understand people who try to step in and defend do-nothing billionaires - they're all morality free nihilists who value profit above all else. They're all ruthless.
So is Trump/Vance good for business? For all I know that's true of a few [types of] businesses only, e.g. fossil fuels are an obvious one. But to Apple, IRA-enabled investment opportunities may be more relevant than availability of fossil fuels.
It's impossible to know what outcomes Trump/Vance would produce and who that would be good for.
Could be anything from a hardline but peaceful form of traditionalist authoritarianism. To fascism and WW3 with internal purges and massacres of "the enemies within".
I don't think any of Trump's plans will be good for business though because an increase in the wealth gap generally means you're creating a deepening sense of monopoly and corruption, and that generally means richer people at the top, less casual consumption and money flowing in the economy in the lower-middle, and stagnation and poverty at the bottom (with the poorest squeezing by and only spending on essentials, possibly becoming homeless).
How long these outcomes take to form who knows.
But outside of that, the US economy is having a mild recovery and is generally in an upswing that should continue if which ever government gets in is stable and fairly sensible.
It's possible Trump is lying. But there is a depressingly high chance that this call (or one like it) did actually happen. Rich fucks do be making insane phone calls all the time. Just look up Bill Ackman's long reputation of putting Columbia administrative heads, NY/DC newspaper editors, and random ranking congresspeople on blast, every time he gets a bug up his ass about Woke.