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Businesses Plead for Tariff Breaks After Trump Spares iPhones
"Retail executives huddled with the president amid fears that tariffs could result in higher prices.
President Trump acknowledged last week that he had “helped” Apple, sparing iPhones from the roughly 145 percent U.S. tariff that currently applies to Chinese imports.Karsten Moran for The New York Times
When President Trump’s steep tariffs threatened to send the price of iPhones soaring, Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, called the White House — and soon secured a reprieve for his company and the broader electronics industry.
Almost immediately, top aides to Mr. Trump insisted they had not strayed from their promise to apply import taxes across the economy with minimal, if any, exceptions. But the carve-out still caught the attention of many businesses nationwide, igniting a fresh scramble for similar help in the throes of a global trade war.
Top lobbying groups for the agriculture, construction, manufacturing, retail and technology industries have pleaded with the White House in recent days to relax more of its tariffs, with many arguing that there are some products they must import simply because they are too expensive or impractical to produce in the United States.
On Monday, executives from retailers including Home Depot, Target and Walmart became the latest to raise their concerns directly with Mr. Trump, as the industry continues to brace for the possibility that steep taxes on imports could result in price increases for millions of American consumers.
“We had a productive meeting with President Trump and our retail peers to discuss the path forward on trade, and we remain committed to delivering value for American consumers,” a Target spokesman, Jim Joice, said in a statement.
Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive, haspreviously acknowledgedthe many “variables” surrounding Mr. Trump’s tariffs and retail prices. A spokeswoman for Walmart confirmed the meeting on Monday, describing the conversation in a statement as “productive.” Other companies did not respond to requests for comment.
“The deal window may be open,” David French, the executive vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation, said in an interview last week. He said his industry had sought an audience with Mr. Trump and his team to make the case that “the consumer is very alarmed at what they fear is on the way in terms of higher prices.”
Many businesses say they want to satisfy the president’s demands and begin producing or purchasing more of their goods domestically. But they have also tried to impress on Mr. Trump and his aides that they cannot reconfigure their complicated global supply chains overnight, especially if steep import taxes on machinery and other critical components result in substantially higher manufacturing costs.
“We are calling on the administration to scope out specific manufacturing inputs that we need, specifically to make things in America,” said Charles Crain, the managing vice president for policy at the National Association of Manufacturers, whose board of directors includes executives from Caterpillar, Dow Inc., Pfizer and Toyota.
Kip Eideberg, the senior vice president for government relations at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, said his group “made the case to the administration that if they want to achieve their stated objective, strengthening U.S. manufacturing and bolstering our global competitiveness, then there needs to be relief.”
His association, which represents a broad swath of agricultural and construction equipment firms, has called for a “blanket, no-tariff approach to parts and components that are critical and cannot be sourced at scale anywhere else.”
Now fully enmeshed in a global trade war, Mr. Trump has sent mixed messages about what he has described as a “flexible” tariff strategy.
Last week,the president acknowledgedthat he had “helped” Apple at Mr. Cook’s request, sparing iPhones from the new, roughly 145 percent U.S. tariff that currently applies to Chinese imports. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president said, “I don’t want to hurt anybody.”
But the Trump administration then took the first formal steps toward unveiling specific tariffs on semiconductors, the memory chips that power iPhones and other computing devices, as well as the machines that help to manufacture those goods. The move suggested that any relief for Apple may ultimately prove short-lived.
Mr. Trump suggested on that same day that he could extend similar aid to automakers, who are now subject to a25 percent tariff on cars and auto partsimported into the United States. The president acknowledged that the industry would “need a little bit of time” to begin manufacturing vehicles and components in the United States, in comments that immediately caused carmakers’ share prices to spike.
No such reprieve has been announced. But the president’s aides and advisers have privately signaled renewed openness to discussing tariff exemptions. On a few occasions over the past month, officials with the Domestic Policy Council and elsewhere in the government have asked business groups to furnish lists of materials and machinery that they cannot quickly and easily make in the United States, according to two people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to describe the private discussions.
“The administration maintains regular contact with business leaders, industry groups and everyday Americans about our trade and economic policies,” Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said in a statement. “President Trump, however, has been clear: If you’re worried about tariffs, the solution is simple. Make your product in America.”
After a new tariff on foreign-made cars and auto parts went into effect this month, Mr. Trump suggested that he could extend aid to automakers, but his administration announced no such reprieve.Brett Carlsen for The New York Times
For now, the president and his team have focused primarily on negotiating a series of bilateral trade agreements with dozens of countries that the administration says are engaging in unfair trade practices, including by imposing tariffs and other restrictions on American goods. This month, Mr. Trump announced stiff tariffs on nearly all of America’s trading partners, including India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the European Union, before pausing those levies for 90 days in order to engage in negotiations.
On Monday, Vice President JD Vance met in India with the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, as the White House races to try to clinch “90 deals in 90 days,” as some of Mr. Trump’s aides have said. Without a deal, India could face a 26 percent “reciprocal” tariff rate.
Even without any trade agreements in hand, Mr. Trump has highlighted his approach as a success, boasting that his policies have helped to attract trillions of dollars in private investments from companies including Apple, OpenAI and Nvidia.
“Since our announcement of LIBERATION DAY, many World Leaders and Business Executives have come to me asking for relief from Tariffs,” the president posted on Truth Social on Sunday. “It’s good to see that the World knows we are serious, because WE ARE!”
Mr. Trump added, “But for those who want the easiest path: Come to America, and build in America!”
But the reality is more complicated. Early indicators suggest that some companies have actually slowed their spending out of concern that tariffs could result in higher input prices. Onesurvey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, released in April, found that manufacturing activity in the region had declined for the second consecutive month while firms generally said they expected “conditions to worsen in the months ahead.”
Some business groups have echoed those fears, warning the White House that U.S. firms may not be able to meet their own domestic investment targets if the economics worsen. These companies may not be able to create new factories and jobs, as they have promised, without stable financial markets, available labor and access to raw materials and machinery — all inputs that may be made more expensive by the president’s recent tariffs.
“From our perspective, the Trump administration’s goal is clear: to enter into trade agreements, and they’re moving at a fast pace,” said Jason Oxman, the president of the Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Apple and Nvidia.
“But the question for the companies looking to invest in the United States is how long will their operating expenses be higher because of the tariff regime, which may reduce the available investment for capital expenditures,” Mr. Oxman added, cautioning that he was not speaking on behalf of those tech giants.
The administration did exempt some metals, including copper and zinc, as well as rare earth minerals from the reciprocal tariffs that Mr. Trump announced and suspended in early April.
But many trade experts said any breaks may only be temporary. Much as it has for semiconductors, the administration has opened an investigation to determine whether lumber imports pose a threat to national security, a precursor to Washington issuing sector-specific tariffs under a provision of law known as Section 232.
That reflected a strategic choice by the White House “to give businesses time to relocate their production back to the United States and ramp up enough capacity and production in the U.S. to meet demand,” said Nick Iacovella, the executive vice president of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, an advocacy group that supports the president’s trade policies.
“There are always going to be companies that are going to want exemptions,” Mr. Iacovella continued, adding that the administration should resist those calls because they threaten to “undermine” Mr. Trump’s objectives.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington."
Google Is a Monopolist in Online Advertising Tech, Judge Says
"The ruling was the second time in a year that a federal court had found that Google had acted illegally to maintain its dominance.
The federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., where the Google antitrust trial has been held.Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in some online advertising technology, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, adding to legal troubles that could reshape the $1.88 trillion company and alter its power over the internet.
Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a 115-page ruling that Google had broken the law to build its dominance over the largely invisible system of technology that places advertisements on pages across the web. TheJustice Department and a group of states had sued Google, arguing that its monopoly in ad technology allowed the company to charge higher prices and take a bigger portion of each sale.
“In addition to depriving rivals of the ability to compete, this exclusionary conduct substantially harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,” said Judge Brinkema, who also dismissed one portion of the government’s case.
Google has increasingly faced a reckoning over the dominant role its products play in how people get information and conduct business online. Another federal judge ruled in August that the companyhad a monopoly in online search. He is now considering a request by the Justice Department to break the company up, with a three-week hearing on the matter scheduled to begin Monday.
Judge Brinkema, too, will have an opportunity to force changes to Google’s business. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department pre-emptively asked the court to force Google to sell some pieces of its ad technology business acquired over the years.
Together, the two rulings and their remedies could check Google’s influence and result in a sweeping overhaul of the company, which faces a potential major restructuring.
Google and the Department of Justice did not immediately have comment.
The cases against Google are part of agrowing push by regulatorsto rein in the power of the biggest tech companies, which shape commerce, information and communication online. The Justice Department has sued Apple, arguing that the company made it difficult for consumers to leave its tightly knit universe of devices and software. The Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon, accusing it of squeezing small businesses, and Meta, for killing rivals when it bought Instagram and WhatsApp. Thetrial against Metastarted this week.
President Trump has signaled that his administration will continue taking a tough stance on antitrust for the tech industry, despite efforts by tech executives to court his favor. His choices forF.T.C. chairand theJustice Department’s top antitrust rolehave said they intend to look closely at the power that tech companies have over online discourse. The Google search case was brought under his first administration.
The ad tech case — U.S. et al. v. Google — was filed in 2023 and concerns an intricate web of programs that sell ad space around the web, like on a news site or a recipes page. The suite of software, which includes Google Ad Manager, conducts split-second auctions to place ads each time a user loads a page. That business generated $31 billion in 2023, or about a 10th of the overall revenue for Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
Part of that business stems from the acquisition of DoubleClick, an advertising software company, for $3.1 billion in 2008. Google now has an 87 percent market share in ad-selling technology, according to the government.
The government argued during a three-week trial in September that Google had a monopoly over multiple pieces of technology that are used to conduct these transactions. The company locked publishers into using its software, and was able to take more money off the top of each transaction because of its dominance, the government said.
That hurt websites that produce content and make it available for online for no charge, the government said.
For years, groups representing news organizations, including The New York Times, have argued that the dominance of major tech platforms undermines the media industry. During the trial, the government called witnesses who had worked for publishers including Gannett and News Corp and for ad agencies that buy space online.
“These are the markets that make the free and open internet possible,” said Aaron Teitelbaum, a Justice Department lawyer, during closing arguments in November.
Google countered that it faced competition not just from other ad tech companies but from social networks like TikTok and streaming platforms. In response to the government’s arguments that it had built its ad tech products to work better together, Google’s lawyers argued that its case was bolstered by a 2004 Supreme Court decision that protects a company’s right to choose with whom it does and does not work.
“Google’s conduct is a story of innovation in response to competition,” Karen Dunn, Google’s lead lawyer, said in her closing argument.
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies."
The search for life beyond Earth has led scientists to explore many suggestive mysteries, from plumes of methane on Mars to clouds of phosphine gas on Venus. But as far as we can tell, Earth’s inhabitants remain alone in the cosmos.
Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication yet of extraterrestrial life, not in our solar system but on a massive planet, known as K2-18b, that orbits a star 120 light-years from Earth. A repeated analysis of the exoplanet’s atmosphere suggests an abundance of a molecule that on Earth has only one known source: living organisms such as marine algae.
“It is in no one’s interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life,” said Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and an author of the new study, at a news conference on Tuesday. Still, he said, the best explanation for his group’s observations is that K2-18b is covered with a warm ocean, brimming with life.
“This is a revolutionary moment,” Dr. Madhusudhan said. “It’s the first time humanity has seen potential biosignatures on a habitable planet.”
The study was published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Other researchers called it an exciting, thought-provoking first step to making sense of what’s on K2-18b. But they were reluctant to draw grand conclusions.
“It’s not nothing,” said Stephen Schmidt, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s a hint. But we cannot conclude it’s habitable yet.”
If there is extraterrestrial life on K2-18b, or anywhere else, its discovery will arrive at a frustratingly slow pace. “Unless we see E.T. waving at us, it’s not going to be a smoking gun,” said Christopher Glein, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
Canadian astronomers discovered K2-18b in 2017, while looking through ground-based telescopes in Chile. It was a type of planet commonly found outside our solar system, but one without any analog near Earth that scientists could study closely for clues.
These planets, known as sub-Neptunes, are much bigger than the rocky planets in our inner solar system, but smaller than Neptune and other gas-dominated planets of the outer solar system.
In 2021, Dr. Madhusudhan and his colleagues proposed that sub-Neptunes were covered with warm oceans of water and wrapped in atmospheres containing hydrogen, methane and other carbon compounds. To describe these strange planets, they coined a new term, “Hycean,” from a combination of the words “hydrogen” and “ocean.”
The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in December 2021 allowed astronomers a closer look at sub-Neptunes and other distant planets.
As an exoplanet passes in front its host star, its atmosphere, if it has one, is illuminated. Its gases change the color of the starlight that reaches the Webb telescope. By analyzing these changing wavelengths, scientists can infer the chemical composition of the atmosphere.
While inspecting K2-18b, Dr. Madhusudhan and his colleagues discovered it had many of the molecules they had predicted a Hycean planet would possess. In 2023, they reported they had also detected faint hints of another molecule, and one of huge potential importance: dimethyl sulfide, which is made of sulfur, carbon, and hydrogen.
On Earth, the only known source of dimethyl sulfide is life. In the ocean, for instance, certain forms of algae produce the compound, which wafts into the air and adds to the sea’s distinctive odor. Long before the Webb telescope was launched, astrobiologists had wondered whether dimethyl sulfide might serve as a sign of life on other planets.
Last year, Dr. Madhusudhan and his colleagues got a second chance to look for dimethyl sulfide. As K2-18b orbited in front of its star, they used a different instrument on the Webb telescope to analyze the starlight passing through the planet’s atmosphere. This time they saw an even stronger signal of dimethyl sulfide, along with a similar molecule called dimethyl disulfide.
“It is a shock to the system,” Dr. Madhusudhan said. “We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal.”
No matter how the scientists revisited their readings, the signal stayed strong. They concluded that K2-18b may in fact harbor a tremendous supply of dimethyl sulfide in its atmosphere, thousands of times higher than the level found on Earth. This would suggest that its Hycean seas are brimming with life.
Other researchers emphasized that much research remained to be done. One question yet to be resolved is whether K2-18b is in fact a habitable, Hycean world as Dr. Madhusudhan’s team claims.
In a paper posted online Sunday, Dr. Glein and his colleagues argued that K2-18b could instead be a massive hunk of rock with a magma ocean and a thick, scorching hydrogen atmosphere — hardly conducive to life as we know it.
Scientists will also need to run laboratory experiments to make sense of the new study — to recreate the possible conditions on sub-Neptunes, for instance, to see whether dimethyl sulfide behaves there as it does on Earth.
“It’s important to remember that we’re just starting to understand the nature of these exotic worlds,” said Matthew Nixon, a planetary scientist at the University of Maryland who was not involved in the new study.
Researchers want to wait to see what the Webb telescope finds as it continues to examine K2-18b; provocative early findings sometimes fade in the light of additional data. NASA has been designing and building more powerful space telescopes that will look specifically for signs of habitability on planets orbiting other stars, including K2-18b. Even if it takes years to decipher what’s happening on K2-18b, it could be worth it, scientists said.
“I’m not screaming, ‘aliens!’” said Nikole Lewis, an exoplanetary scientist at Cornell University. “But I always reserve my right to scream ‘aliens!’”
But Joshua Krissansen-Totton, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington, said he worried that American astrobiologists may not be able to follow up on the latest results on K2-18b.
The Trump administration is reportedly planning to cut NASA’s science budget in half, eliminating future space telescope and other astrobiology projects. If that happens, Dr. Krissansen-Totton said, “the search for life elsewhere would basically stop.”
Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column“
But two days later, the Trump administration saidsmartphones and computers were likely to be hitwith new tariffs targeting semiconductors, or chips. More expensive iPhones could come after all! Talk about whiplash.
Don’t panic. Even if tariffs did cause the iPhone’s price to surge, we would have plenty of cheaper options, like buying last year’s phone model instead of the latest and greatest.
The most important lesson we can learn from the turmoil: The only consistent way to save money on tech is to use devices for as long as possible, which requires maintaining them as you would a car, and upgrading only when you must.
“Buy the best and drive it into the ground,” said Ramit Sethi, apersonal finance expert. “Holding that item for longer will bring down the overall cost of ownership.”
There remains lots of uncertainty around future costs of tech hardware in general. Nintendo this month canceled plans to start taking orders for its game console, the$450 Nintendo Switch 2, to evaluate the impact of tariffs on pricing and availability. Costs of some accessories, like phone chargers, power bricks and cases, havealready risen on Amazon.
Here’s how to navigate tech purchases going forward.
Hold On to Devices Longer to Save Money
The best way to save money on tech is, simply, to replace your devices less often.
To understand how personal tech impacts your finances, calculatethe true cost of ownership, Mr. Sethi said. Each time we buy a new phone, we end up buying more than that. Extras like a protective case, additional data storage to hold more photos and apps, and an accessory such as a power charger or earbuds add up.
Take the iPhone 16 as an example. Its $800 price tag can easily inflate to $1,080, since you may also buy:
AniPhone casefor $50
AirPodsfor $130
256 gigabytes ofstoragefor $100
Your total cost of ownership over three years would be about $30 a month. You could then trade in your phone to offset the cost of a new one, but those savings would again be shaved away by the next phone case and other extras.
In contrast, if you bought the phone, along with those extras, and held on to it for six years, the total cost of ownership would shrink to $15 a month.
The same principle applies to other devices like computers and tablets: The longer you hold on to your belongings, the more value you squeeze out of them.
Maintain Your Tech Just as You Would a Car
Tech products were built to be high-value, long-term investments, similar to cars. Many modern smartphones, tablets and computers weredesigned to last six to 10 years. But most of us still buy new phones every three years, according to research by Chetan Sharma, a consultant for phone carriers.
One common habit is largely to blame: We neglect to replace the battery, said Kyle Wiens, the chief executive of iFixit, a company that provides instructions and parts for repairing electronics.
Similar to car tires, phone batteries degrade and must be replaced after a certain amount of use, roughly every three years. An aged battery directly affects the speed and longevity of the phone. But the process of prying open a smartphone to remove a glued-down battery can be intimidating, and buying a new phone feels easier than visiting a repair shop.
Now is as good a time as ever to make replacing batteries a new habit. In the last few years, Apple, Google and others significantly improved their smartphone designs to make batteries easier to replace.
I, for one, used a hair dryer and cheap hand tools to melt the glue around my iPhone 14 and pried it open to replace the battery in less than an hour. It cost only about $50.
Apple and many phone repair shops will also do battery replacements for about $100; Apple will replace an aged battery for free for iPhones under warranty.
Repair costs are also expected to shoot up because most tech parts, like batteries and screens, come from China, according to three repair shops I interviewed. But even if a $100 battery becomes a $150 battery, that will be much cheaper than replacing an entire device, Mr. Wiens said.
Buy a Used Phone
Recent tech panic buying was driven in part by estimates from analysts speculating that tariffs could drive up the cost of some iPhone models to anywhere from $1,300 to $2,300. Apple declined to comment on whether tariffs would affect its iPhone pricing.
But even in the worst-case scenario, we would have plenty of cheaper options, just as we do when shopping for cars.
Car shoppers are well aware that they never have to buy the most recent model. They can look for used options or buy a previous year’s model for much cheaper. About 76 percent of cars sold in the United States are used, according to data published byConsumer Affairs. Only 5 percent of phones are purchased in refurbished condition, meaning the products were used before being restored to like-new condition, according to research by Back Market, a site that sells refurbished tech gear.
Lauren Benton, a general manager atBack Market, said concern over tariffs appeared to be driving consumers toward older phones. Sales of a refurbished iPhone 15 Pro, which was released in 2023 for $1,000, were up significantly last week on the site, she said. The refurbished phone is selling for $639 and has a better camera than the latest $800 iPhone 16.
Even if tariffs drive new phone prices up, the value of your older phone will go up, too, and trading it in would substantially offset costs, Ms. Benton said.
This is all to say don’t fear the hypothetical $2,000 iPhone.
And let’s be frank: If you’re worried about your personal finances in the current chaotic state of the economy, you should probably be thinking about more important issues than phone upgrades, like your emergency savings fund, Mr. Sethi said.
“These discussions remind me of someone seeing their entire house on fire, and what they are doing is calmly changing their shoelaces,” he said. “Panic buying an iPhone is number 662 on the list of things I would be doing.”
Brian X. Chen is the lead consumer technology writer for The Times. He reviews products and writesTech Fix, a column about the social implications of the tech we use."
As Tariffs Hit, Americans Are Racing to Buy Car Seats, iPhones and Christmas Gifts
"Many Americans have purchased foreign-made products out of fears that companies could start to raise prices soon.
Fearing increased prices because of tariffs on Chinese goods, shoppers have flocked to Apple stores to buy iPhones, deciding not to wait until the release of new models later this year.Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Emily Moen, a coffee shop manager in Omaha, was scrolling through TikTok earlier this week when she came across a video informing her that President Trump’s tariffs could lead to higher prices for essential baby products.
Ms. Moen, who is 15 weeks pregnant, said that she had not planned to buy a car seat soon. But after watching the video, she researched the one made by Graco that she had been eyeing, and learned that it was manufactured in China. Worried that the $200 seat could get even more expensive, she bought the item on Amazon the same day.
“It was like an awakening to get this done now,” said Ms. Moen, 29.
As the Trump administration’s trade war with China escalates, many consumers have raced to purchase foreign-made products out of fear that companies could start to raise prices soon. Some have rushed to buy big-ticket items like iPhones and refrigerators. Others have hurriedly placed orders for cheap goods from Chinese e-commerce platforms.
The White House this week imposeda minimum tariff rate of 145 percenton all Chinese imports to the United States, on top of other previously announced levies, including a 25 percent tariff on steel, aluminum, cars and car parts.
And last week, Mr. Trumpordered the end of a loopholethat had allowed goods from China worth less than $800 to enter the United States without tariffs.
Early data show that consumers stocked up on goods after the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs on nearly all trading partners.Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Some early data show that consumers flocked to stores and stocked up on goods after the administration announcedsweeping tariffson nearly all trading partners. Mr. Trump backed down on some of those threats this week and instituted a90-day pauseon more punishing levies. But he said that the halt would not apply to China, and he instead raised tariffs again on all Chinese goods.
China is thesecond largest sourceof U.S. imports, and makes the bulk of the world’s cellphones, computers and toys.
According to Earnest Analytics, a firm that analyzes data on millions of debit and credit card payments, consumer spending at Apple was up 20 percent between April 2 and April 7 compared with average spending there in recent months. Spending was also up 10 percent at Home Depot and 18 percent at the department store chain Belk, according to the analysis.
Consumers have alsoraced to grocery stores, large discount chains and car dealerships in recent days. Purchases of shelf-stable goods surged in the five days following Mr. Trump’s tariff announcement on April 2, with sales of canned and jarred vegetables up 23 percent, sales of instant coffee up 20 percent and ketchup sales up 16 percent compared with the same period the week before, according to data from Consumer Edge, a company that tracks consumer behavior.
Although some consumers have been more strategic with their purchases, others might be stockpiling because of uncertainty about which products will be affected by tariffs, and whether companies will raise prices, analysts said.
The threat of higher prices has also prompted many consumers to buy electronics, particularly iPhones. For more than a decade, American shoppers have purchased iPhones each year beginning in September, when Apple releases its newest models. But Mr. Trump’s tariffs have turned April into this year’s iPhone-buying season.
Tom Barnard, 49, a university marketing director in Waco, Texas, said that he helped his mother buy a new iPhone 16 on Friday. Mr. Barnard said that his mother would have waited for the newest model to come out, but that he thought that it was wiser to make the purchase now, in case Apple increased prices later this year.
“The iPhone could get very expensive very quickly,” he said. “I think we’re going to be in a trade war with China until at least through the end of the year.”
Apple makes roughly 80 percent of its iPhones in China, according to Counterpoint Research, a technology research firm. Because the Trump administration has said that it won’t exempt products made in China from higher tariffs, Apple will either have to pay those fees, reducing its profit, or indirectly pass on the extra costs to customers by raising prices.
Analysts at UBS have estimated that a $1,199 iPhone 16 Pro Max assembled in China is likely to increase in cost by $950, or about 79 percent, at the current tariff rate on Chinese imports.
“There’s panic buying going on and panic selling by investors, too,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “It’s more turmoil than I’ve seen in 20 years following the company. The speed of it has been crazy.”
Mr. Barnard, the marketing director in Texas who planned to purchase a new iPhone, said that he and his wife also spent around $650 at Walmart last weekend, in large part because they were concerned that tariffs could raise grocery costs.
Some parents have even debated buying Christmas gifts eight months early, to stave off higher prices. In Facebook groups and on message boards dedicated to families, parents debated what to buy, given the attention span of toddlers. Parents asked each other if their children would still be interested in narwhal or unicorn toys at the end of the year, or if it was better to go for a more standard gift, such as Lego sets.
In one Facebook group for families in the Los Angeles area, parents shared notes about Apple products, video game consoles they had purchased and where they had seen the lowest prices.
“We were talking about getting our son an iPhone when he turns 14 at the end of the year, but we are going to buy it now,” wrote one parent, in a Facebook group for families in the San Francisco area. “We just have to hide it from him until his birthday.”
Other consumers have been preparing for the possibility of higher prices for months. Bree Chaudoin, 47, a lending support specialist in Normal, Ill., said she upgraded her iPhone shortly after Mr. Trump was elected in November, out of concern that prices could rise if he imposed new tariffs. Ms. Chaudoin said that she also started saving up for new camping gear late last year.
About a month ago, Ms. Chaudoin purchased a $1,500 rooftop tent for her car that appeared to have been manufactured in China. She also ordered a new water tank, camping lanterns and fire tongs from Temu and AliExpress, popular e-commerce platforms with Chinese owners.
Ms. Chaudoin said that she typically tries to buy as many American products as she can. But a similar water tank produced domestically, she added, would have cost at least $120 more.
“I have a very tight budget,” she said. “When they sell these products that are such high quality and for a less amount of money, it just didn’t make sense to me to buy them anywhere else.”
Even though the recent surge in sales has provided a boon for some companies, retail analysts said that firms appeared to be more concerned about consumers pulling back on spending. Wall Street economists have lowered their forecasts for growth and warned about a potential recession amid a global trade war.Consumer sentimenthas also tumbled as households grow more anxious about inflation.
“When I talk to companies, they’re more worried that people are not going to buy,” said Simeon Siegel, a retail analyst at the investment bank BMO Capital Markets.
Trump Administration Live Updates: Smartphones and Computers Get Reprieve From New U.S. Tariffs on China
President Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday.Tom Brenner for The New York Times
"Where Things Stand
Smartphone reprieve:The Trump administrationpublished a rulelate Friday night that appeared to exempt smartphones, computers and other electronics from most of the president’s punishing tariffs on China, giving tech companies like Apple and Dell a break from levies that threatened to upend their businesses and increase prices for consumers.
Border policy:President Trump announced a plan on Friday to turn a narrow strip along the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico into a military installation as part of his effort to curtail illegal crossings. The plan, set out in a White House memorandum, calls for transferring authority over the 60-foot-wide strip of federal border land known as the Roosevelt Reservation from other cabinet agencies to the Defense Department.Read more ›
Federal firings:A federal appeals panel on Friday halted parts of a district court judge’s injunction blocking the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing officials to move ahead with firing some agency employees.Read more ›
The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan this week.Karsten Moran for The New York Times
After more than a week of ratcheting up tariffs on products imported from China, the Trump administration issued a rule late Friday that appeared to spare smartphones, computers and other electronics from some of the fees, giving tech companies like Apple and Dell a break from levies that threatened to upend their businesses and increase prices for consumers.
Amessageposted late Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection included a long list of products that would not face the reciprocal tariffs President Trump imposed in recent days on Chinese goods as part of a worsening trade war. Apart from smartphones and laptop computers, the exclusions would also apply to transistors and semiconductors, which are largely not made in the United States.
Supporters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rallying outside the agency in February. The appeals court left much of the injunction blocking the Trump administration from dismantling the agency intact.Craig Hudson/Reuters
A federal appeals panel on Friday halted parts of a district court judge’s injunction blocking the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing officials to move ahead with firing some agency employees.
Russell T. Vought, the White House budget office director, was named the consumer bureau’s acting director in February and immediately begangutting the agency.He closed its headquarters and sought to terminate its lease, canceled contracts essential to the bureau’s operations, terminated hundreds of employees and sought to lay off nearly all of the rest.
The unveiling of former President Barack Obama’s official portrait in the East Room of the White House in 2022.Doug Mills/The New York Times
The Trump administration said on Friday that it had moved a portrait of former President Barack Obama in a White House hallway and replaced it with a pop-art painting of President Trump pumping his fist after the assassination attempt last year on the campaign trail in Butler, Pa.
President Trump speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday.Tom Brenner for The New York Times
President Trump announced a plan on Friday to turn a narrow strip along the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico into a military installation as part of his effort to curtail illegal crossings.
The plan, set out in a White House memorandum, calls for transferring authority over the 60-foot-wide strip of federal border land known as the Roosevelt Reservation from other cabinet agencies to the Defense Department. Military forces patrolling that area could then temporarily detain migrants passing through for trespassing on a military reservation, said a U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
Mainers protest against Gov. Janet Mills in front of the State Capitol in Augusta in March.Ryan David Brown for The New York Times
The Department of Education said on Friday that it was moving to cut off all federal funding for Maine’s public schools because the state had ignored President Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports teams.
The agency also said it had asked the Justice Department to pursue “enforcement action” against Maine, which the Trump administration has been targeting since the president picked a fight with the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, over transgender athletes in February.
Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, told senators that the agency would not engage in retribution under his command.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
The F.B.I. has suspended an analyst on Kash Patel’sso-called enemies listafter Mr. Patel told lawmakers that the bureau under his leadership would stay out of the political fray and not punish employees for partisan reasons.
Last week, the bureau placed the analyst, Brian Auten, on administrative leave, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation. The reasons for the suspension remain unclear.
Kirkland & Ellis is one of the law firms that recently reached deals with the White House to provide free legal work to causes that President Trump supports.Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
Five more prominent law firms facing potential punitive action by President Trump reached deals on Friday with the White House to provide a total of $600 million in free legal services to causes supported by the president.
Four of the firms — Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett — each agreed to provide $125 million in pro bono or free legal work, according to Mr. Trump. A fifth firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono work."
