Tim Cook Tells Trump Apple Will Build 'Three Big, Beautiful Plants' In US

[UPDATE 8:28 p.m. ET: Foxconn has announced plans to invest $10 billion in a new factory in southeastern Wisconsin to produce LCD panels and employ 3,000 workers over four years.]

President Donald Trump says he told Apple CEO Tim Cook in a recent conversation that he wouldn’t consider his administration “an economic success” unless Apple started building domestic manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Trump said Cook confided that Apple would build “three big plants – big, big, big” sometime in the near future.

As part of a wide-ranging interview with the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday, Trump teased a series of major issues including the Apple factory discussion with Tim Cook and his front-runners to replace Janet Yellen at the Federal Reserve. The Journal described the recent sit-down between Trump and Cook as a 45-minute conversation that touched on issues including the Paris climate accord and Trump’s immigration policy.

Read: Trump Says Apple Has 'Eyes Open' To US Plants

Trump did not detail where in the U.S. Apple and Cook intend to build the three “big, beautiful plants,” prompting critics to point out that Apple contracts out its manufacturing processes.

Trump’s description of the friendly chat with Apple’s Cook diverged from Trump’s campaign trail rhetoric, when he called for a boycott of Apple due to its role in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist iPhone investigation.

“Boycott all Apple products until such time as Apple gives cellphone info to authorities regarding radical Islamic terrorist couple from Cal,” Trump tweeted in February 2016.

As Bloomberg points out, Apple doesn’t build or manage factories; instead, it operates an intricate Asian network of production. Apple has numerous partners — nearly all in Asia — that function and employ people in Asia. Apple does have middlemen in U.S. facilities in Austin, Texas, and Fremont, Calif., which do assembly of a small number of Mac computers.

However, one of Apple’s Taiwan-based suppliers – Foxconn Technology Group – is currently mulling a Wisconsin plant of its own to make iPhones. Trump is expected to announce Foxconn’s plans Wednesday; the plant will employ around 3,000 people and go through a $10 billion expansion over two-and-a-half years.

Foxconn chairman Terry Gou plans to join Trump, Ryan, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House to make the announcement about the Kenosha, Wisconsin, plant.

Cook told CNBC in May that Apple plans to invest at least $1 billion to support advanced manufacturing companies in the U.S., including Corning, which makes glass for iPad and iPhone screens.