Apple promises to set up 3 'big' manufacturing plants in US, says Trump

Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised to build three new manufacturing plants in the US, President Donald Trump has said.

Trump said this in an interview to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The US President said he had a phone conversation with Cook.

"He's promised me three big plants -- big, big, big," Trump said, referring to Cook.

"I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won't consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward," Trump was quoted as saying.

Apple was yet to issue a statement on this.

Trump has reiterated several times that he would bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.

Apple currently gets iPhones assembled in Taiwan with Foxconn which is also considering a manufacturing facility in the US.

Apple has committed a $1 billion fund to help create manufacturing jobs in the US.

"By doing that, we can be the ripple in the pond. Because if we can create many manufacturing jobs around, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them because you have a service industry that builds up around them," Cook was quoted as saying.