Howard Lutnick says he hopes Trump’s tariffs will eliminate China’s ‘army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones’ so they can be built in America by robots

• The Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reiterated the White House’s view that tariffs were a necessary measure to encourage companies to establish manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Cabinet officials have repeatedly stated they would like to see consumer goods manufacturing return to the U.S. Lutnick cited Apple’s iPhones as an example of a product he’d like to see be built in the U.S. During the first Trump administration, Apple managed to avoid tariffs that would have hit iPhones that were made in China. 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said President Donald Trump’s recently imposed tariffs, which sent the global markets into a tailspin, were necessary to encourage major companies to begin manufacturing their products in the U.S. 

Among the products Lutnick hoped would be built in the U.S. are Apple’s iPhones. 

“The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America,” Lutnick said on Sunday during an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation. “It's going to be automated.”

The Trump administration announcement last week that the U.S. would impose tariffs on virtually every country in the world roiled global markets. Investors feared the world’s largest economy would close itself off from global trade, lead to higher prices domestically, and possibly induce a recession. At the same time, several cabinet officials have been trying to calm both consumers and business leaders that the widespread tariffs are necessary to reshore production facilities to the U.S. 

“We don't make medicine in this country anymore,” Lutnick said. “We don't make ships. We don't have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right? All our semiconductors are made overseas.”

The vast majority of Apple’s manufacturing plants are located in Asia. For a long time, China was a core production hub for Apple, where it made both computers and phones. (The White House has slapped Chinese goods with 54% tariffs. On Monday morning, Trump threatened new 50% tariffs on China if it didn’t remove its own retaliatory duties on American goods.) However, Apple in recent years has spent time diversifying its supply chain throughout the region to be less reliant on China. The tech giant now also has major manufacturing operations in India and Vietnam. China, Vietnam, and India were all subject to the U.S.’s new tariff policies. Because of Apple’s vulnerability to Trump's tariffs, its stock got battered since the Rose Garden announcement. Apple’s share price fell 20% since Wednesday. 

In the past, Lutnick has pointed to iPhones as a product he would specifically like to see manufactured in the U.S. 

"We all hold our iPhones, which we love. Why do they have to be made in Taiwan and China?,” Lutnick told CNBC last week. “Why can't those be made with robotics in America? And you know what Donald Trump has said? They're going to be made in America." 

Lutnick acknowledged bringing production plants to the U.S. would raise costs for companies. “American workers are more expensive, but they're better,” he said. 

During the first Trump administration, Apple struck a deal with the White House to avoid a series of tariffs on Chinese imports that would have affected the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. Apple CEO Tim Cook applied a charm offensive on Trump that eventually resulted in an exemption to a 15% tariffs that its Chinese-made iPhones would have been subject to. One of the reasons Trump waived the tariff for Apple was because it had a factory in Texas that makes its Mac Pro computers. 

In December, Apple announced a major $500 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing. Trump touted the announcement as a victory for his America First policies, though analysts were more skeptical about the moves, with UBS saying it “lacks substance.” 

Detractors of the president’s tariff policy, of which there are many, point to the fact there are other policies available to the government to induce companies in specific sectors to build factories in the U.S. For example, the government can offer subsidies for certain industries as it did to semiconductor manufacturing with the CHIPS Act, or develop public-private partnerships as the Trump administration did with Project Stargate, which aims to build AI data centers across the country. 

Instead, blanket tariff policies reduce imports of all goods and inject such a high level of uncertainty into the market that businesses are unlikely to want to invest the large amounts of capital needed for a major project like building a factory. Lutnick said companies need not worry about future economic conditions. 

“The United States of America is going to protect the people who invest in America,” Lutnick said. “Trillions and trillions of dollars—you heard the President speak about it—are coming to invest in America. This is the economy of the world. We are the consumer of the world, and companies need to build it here, and we will protect them for building it here.”

The Commerce Department did not respond to questions about what protections it would offer companies that manufactured products in the U.S. Apple did not respond to a Fortune request for comment about whether it would shift manufacturing to the U.S.

Many of the White House’s arguments hinge on the idea that the U.S.’s trade deficits with countries across the world represents a “rip-off.” A trade deficit occurs when a country purchases more goods from a specific country than it sells to it. Given that the U.S. is the wealthiest country in the world, it buys more goods than most other countries, especially those in developing and emerging markets. Yet, Lutnick, like most Trump officials, believe the U.S.'s trade deficits are a problem for the economy. 

“They're taking our money, and Donald Trump has seen this, and he's going to stop it,” Lutnick said. 

While the Trump administration had enjoyed broad support from the corporate world, much of that goodwill is turning as a result of the market rout caused by the tariff announcements. Past Trump supporters like the hedge-fund titan Bill Ackman have soured on tariffs after stock indices plunged across the world. Even Trump’s closest ally in the private sector, Elon Musk, said he preferred a 10% baseline tariff to the much higher rates imposed on other countries. Musk also personally criticized Peter Navarro, the architect of the tariff policy, on X this weekend. 

Lutnick made clear the White House was standing firm on last week’s tariffs despite any pushback from business leaders or the markets. 

“There is no postponing,” Lutnick said. “[Tariffs] are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. That is sort of obvious. The president needs to reset global trade.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com