In the run-up to President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, the White House encouraged chief executives and representatives of many U.S. companies to join him. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, declined, said two people familiar with the decision.

在特朗普总统最近前往中东访问前夕，白宫鼓励多家美国公司的首席执行官和代表随行。两位知情人士表示，苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克拒绝了邀请。

The choice appeared to irritate Mr. Trump. As he hopscotched from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Trump took a number of shots at Mr. Cook.

这一决定似乎惹恼了特朗普。在从沙特阿拉伯辗转抵达阿拉伯联合酋长国的途中，特朗普对库克进行了多次攻击。

During his speech in Riyadh, Mr. Trump paused to praise Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, for traveling to the Middle East along with the White House delegation. Then he knocked Mr. Cook.

在利雅得发表演讲时，特朗普停下来称赞了随行的英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋。然后他敲打库克。

“I mean, Tim Cook isn’t here but you are,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Huang at an event attended by chief executives like Larry Fink of the asset manager BlackRock, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jane Fraser of Citigroup and Lisa Su of the semiconductor company AMD.

“我的意思是，蒂姆·库克不在这里，而你在这里，”特朗普在一场活动上对黄仁勋说，台下就坐的包括资产管理公司贝莱德的拉里·芬克、OpenAI的山姆·奥尔特曼、花旗集团的简·弗雷泽和半导体公司AMD的苏姿丰等首席执行官。

Later in Qatar, Mr. Trump said he “had a little problem with Tim Cook.” The president praised Apple’s investment in the United States, then said he had told Mr. Cook, “But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.”

晚些时候在卡塔尔，特朗普说他“和蒂姆·库克有些小问题”。总统肯定了苹果在美国的投资，然后说他曾对库克说，“但现在我听说你们在印度到处建厂。我可不想看到这样。”

On Friday morning, Mr. Trump caught much of his own administration and Apple’s leadership off guard with a social media post threatening tariffs of 25 percent on iPhones made anywhere except the United States. The post thrust Apple back into the administration’s cross hairs a little over a month after Mr. Cook had lobbied and won an exemption from a 145 percent tariff on iPhones assembled in China and sold in the United States.

周五上午，特朗普在社交媒体上发了一条帖子，威胁对除美国以外的任何地方生产的iPhone征收25%的关税，令政府内部和苹果公司高层的很多人措手不及。此时距离库克成功游说，对在中国组装、在美国销售的iPhone免征145%的关税仅过去一个多月，如今这篇帖子又令苹果成了政府的靶子。

The new tariff threat is a reversal of fortune for Mr. Cook. In eight years, he’s gone from one of Mr. Trump’s most beloved chief executives — whom the president mistakenly and humorously called Tim Apple in 2019 — to one of the White House’s biggest corporate targets. The breakdown has been enough to make insiders across Washington and Silicon Valley wonder: Has tech’s leading Trump whisperer lost his voice?

对库克而言，新的关税威胁是命运的逆转。八年里，他从特朗普最心爱的首席执行官之一——总统在2019年错误而幽默地称他为蒂姆·苹果——变成了白宫在商界最大的打击目标之一。如此巨变足以让华盛顿和硅谷的内部人士怀疑：这位科技界最能在特朗普耳边窃窃私语的人失声了吗？

Nu Wexler, principal at Four Corners Public Affairs and a former Washington policy communications executive at Google and Facebook, said Mr. Cook’s “very public relationship” with Mr. Trump has backfired.

四角公共事务负责人、曾在谷歌和Facebook担任华盛顿政策传讯主管的努·韦克斯勒说，库克与特朗普“众所周知的交情”产生了反作用。

“It has put Apple at a disadvantage because every move, including a potential concession from Trump, is scrutinized,” Mr. Wexler said. Because Mr. Trump didn’t “have much incentive to either go easy on Apple or cut a deal on tariffs,” he said, “the incentive to crack down is much stronger.”

韦克斯勒说：“这让苹果处于不利地位，因为每一个举动，包括从特朗普那里获得的让步，都会受到仔细审视。”他说，因为特朗普“没有什么动力对苹果网开一面，或者在关税问题上达成协议”，因此，“打击苹果的动机要强烈得多。”

Apple did not provide comment. The White House declined to comment on the Middle East trip.

苹果没有就此置评。白宫拒绝就总统的中东之行发表评论。

Mr. Trump’s new tariffs followed a report by The Financial Times that Apple’s supplier Foxconn would spend $1.5 billion on a plant in India for iPhones. The president said the tariffs would begin at the end of June and affect all smartphones made abroad, including Samsung’s devices.

特朗普此番加征新关税之前，《金融时报》报道称，苹果的供应商富士康将斥资15亿美元在印度建厂生产iPhone。总统表示，关税将于6月底生效，影响所有在国外生产的智能手机，包括三星的设备。

Earlier in the week, Mr. Cook had visited Washington for a meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. During an appearance on Fox News on Friday, Mr. Bessent said the administration considered overseas production of semiconductors and electronics components “one of our greatest vulnerabilities,” which Apple could help address.

本周早些时候，库克曾访问华盛顿，与财政部长贝森特会晤。周五在福克斯新闻露面时，贝森特表示，政府认为半导体和电子元件的海外生产是“我们最大的弱点之一”，苹果可以帮助解决这个问题。

“President Trump has been consistently clear about the need to reshore manufacturing that is critical to our national and economic security, including for semiconductors and semiconductor products,” said Kush Desai, a White House spokesman. He added that the administration “continues to have a productive relationship with Apple.”

白宫发言人库什·德赛称，“特朗普总统一直明确表示，需要将关乎国家与经济安全的制造业，包括半导体及其相关产品的生产迁回美国。”他补充说，政府“继续与苹果保持富有成效的合作关系”。

The timing of the White House’s new tariff plan couldn’t be worse for Mr. Cook, who has led Apple for nearly 14 years.

对于领导苹果近14年的库克来说，白宫出台新关税计划的时机再糟糕不过了。

Last month, the company suffered a stinging defeat in an App Store trial. The judge in the trial rebuked Apple executives, saying they had “outright lied under oath” and that “Cook chose poorly,” and ruled that Apple had to change how it operates the App Store. Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief designer who became estranged from Mr. Cook and left the company in 2019, joined OpenAI last week to build a potential iPhone competitor. Its Vision Pro mixed reality headset, released in January 2024 to fanfare, has been a disappointment. And in March, Apple postponed its promised release of a new Siri, raising fresh doubts about its ability to compete in the industry’s race to adopt artificial intelligence.

上个月，苹果在涉及App Store的诉讼中惨败。法官当庭斥责苹果高管，称他们“在宣誓后公然撒谎”，直指“库克决策失误”，并裁定苹果必须改变其应用商店的运营方式。苹果前首席设计师乔尼·艾夫与库克不和，并于2019年离开公司，他上周加入OpenAI，负责打造一个潜在的iPhone竞争对手。苹果公司于2024年1月高调发布的Vision Pro混合现实头盔令人失望。今年3月，苹果推迟了新版Siri的发布，这让人们对其在这个争相采用人工智能的行业中的竞争力产生了新的怀疑。

Still, Apple’s market value has increased by more than $2.5 trillion under his leadership, or about $500 million a day since 2011. And Apple remains a moneymaking machine, generating an annual profit of nearly $100 billion.

不过，在库克的领导下，苹果的市值已经超过了2.5万亿美元，自2011年以来每天增长约5亿美元。苹果仍然是一台赚钱机器，年利润接近1000亿美元。

With Mr. Trump’s re-election, Mr. Cook appeared to be in a strong position to help Apple navigate the new administration. In 2019, Mr. Trump said Mr. Cook was a “great executive because he calls me and others don’t.”

随着特朗普的连任，库克似乎处于有利地位，可以帮助苹果驾驭新政府。2019年，特朗普说库克是位“伟大的高管，因为他会给我打电话，而其他人不会”。

Mr. Cook still occasionally pushed back on the president’s agenda. During an appearance at a conference for Fortune magazine in late 2017, Mr. Cook explained that the company would love to make things in the United States but that China had more engineers and better skills. He appeared before a live audience on MSNBC a few months later and criticized the president’s policy on immigration.

库克偶尔仍会违背总统的议程。在2017年底为《财富》杂志举办的一次会议上，库克解释说，苹果公司很愿意在美国制造产品，但中国有更多的工程师和更好的技术。几个月后，他在MSNBC的现场观众面前批评了总统的移民政策。

This year, their warm relations have run cold. Mr. Trump is more determined to quickly move manufacturing to the United States, which has made Apple a primary target.

今年以来，他们的友好关系明显降温。特朗普更坚定地推动制造业迅速回流美国，这让苹果成为了他施压的主要目标。

On other administration priorities like dismantling diversity initiatives, Mr. Cook has tried to take a diplomatic position. At its annual general shareholder meeting in February, he said that Apple remained committed to its “North Star of dignity and respect for everyone” and would continue to “create a culture of belonging,” but that it might need to make changes to comply with a changing legal landscape.

在废除多样性倡议等其他政府优先事项上，库克试图保持圆滑、避免冲突。在今年2月的年度股东大会上，他表示，苹果仍然致力于“尊重每个人的尊严”这一如同北极星般的核心信念，并将继续“创造一种归属感的文化”，但它可能需要做出改变，以适应不断变化的法律环境。

The bigger problem has been trade. Apple has stopped short of committing to making the iPhone, iPad or Mac laptops in the United States. Instead, the company has moved to assemble more iPhones in India.

更大的问题是贸易。苹果没有承诺在美国生产iPhone、iPad或Mac笔记本电脑。相反，该公司已经开始在印度组装更多的iPhone。

Apple has tried to head off Mr. Trump’s criticisms of its overseas manufacturing by promising to spend $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. Mr. Cook also has emphasized that the company will source 19 billion chips from the United States this year, and will start making A.I. servers in Houston.

苹果公司承诺未来四年在美国投资5000亿美元，试图以此化解特朗普对其海外制造的批评。库克还强调，该公司今年将从美国采购190亿颗芯片，并将在休斯顿生产人工智能服务器。

Servers haven’t satisfied Mr. Trump. He wants iPhones made in the United States badly enough to create what amounts to an iPhone tariff. It would increase the cost of shipping an iPhone from India or China to the United States by 25 percent. The costs aren’t so staggering that they would damage Apple’s business, but Mr. Trump could always ratchet up the levies until he gets his wish.

服务器计划没有让特朗普满意。他非常希望iPhone在美国生产，甚至不惜祭出关税大棒。这将使iPhone从印度或中国运往美国的成本增加25%。现在的成本不会高到损害苹果业务的程度，但特朗普随时都可以加大征税力度，直到他如愿以偿。

“If they’re going to sell it in America, I want it to be built in the United States,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “They’re able to do that.”

“如果他们要在美国销售，我希望它在美国制造，”特朗普周五说。“他们能做到这一点。”

Mr. Cook hasn’t responded publicly.

库克尚未公开回应。