Apple is making a virtue of necessity in President Donald Trump’s trade war, and the key is flattering the president’s ego. On Wednesday, Trump claimed Apple would be exempted from a pending 100 percent tariff on semiconductors, avoiding what would have been a substantial hike to iPhone prices in multiple global markets. As Reuters first reported, the exemption was announced the same day Apple promised to invest an additional $100 billion in the U.S. economy and gave the president a personalized statue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement that the statue was made by Corning, a glass manufacturer that has long worked with Apple on specialty iPhone glass. The piece was cut by a former U.S. Marine Corps corporal now working in Apple’s industrial design group to form a massive circle of glass with a large Apple logo inside. The statue, per Cook, originated in Utah and was placed on a base of 24-karat gold and had Trump’s name engraved on it. Cook finished it with his own signed note that read, “Made in America.”

Trump, who has pressed companies to manufacture more goods inside the U.S. throughout his presidency, seemed to respond well to the gesture in the Oval Office. He affirmed that Apple, and by extension “any company that’s building a factory” in the U.S., would be exempted from tariffs on semiconductors when they are eventually implemented. “You have no charge, because it’s coming in from your own production of these great iPhones, so no charge at all,” Trump said. For Apple, the announcement is a major reprieve, which has come after months of public chastisement from Trump over its supply chain.

Wednesday’s news follows a bumpy few months for Apple, which drew Trump’s ire by not moving iPhone assembly into the U.S. and instead to India. In early April, Trump promised that his trade war would eventually lead to “Made in America” iPhones. In May, his frustration was on open display, as he was seen noting his “little problem with Tim Cook” while en route to the Middle East. Trump reportedly pressed Cook himself, telling him, “We are treating you really good, we put up with all the plants you built in China for years. We are not interested in you building in India.”

Analysts for months have pointed out that moving iPhone assembly to the U.S. is a herculean task that would take years, if it were possible at all. Trump and his administration were less skeptical, pushing the narrative that the goal was feasible. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that Apple was looking into “robotic arms” that would mimic the precision of China’s factories in the U.S.

Cook has a history of deftly sidestepping Trump’s demands through charm offensives and vague pledges of new investment in the U.S., while also holding his ground on assembling iPhones outside the U.S. In the past, Trump has threatened a 25 percent tariff on Apple if it doesn’t bring assembly to the U.S., while this week, he’s saying Apple’s recent commitment is “a significant step toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that iPhones sold in America also are made in America.” For now, Trump has backed off on immediate demands.

Cook has said that Apple does make components like semiconductors, glass, and Face ID components in the U.S. But he has offered no clear timeline for when Apple will bring full assembly into the U.S. and has said it will remain in Asia “for a while.”

Apple has used a playbook of public, symbolic pledges and strategic investments to blunt Trump’s more immediate demands before, during the president’s first term in office. In 2017, Trump announced Apple would be investing in three “big, beautiful” new plants in the U.S. Eventually, just one of these would open, and it would be manufacturing face masks, not iPhones or MacBooks. In 2019, Trump showed off a Texas plant he promised could begin manufacturing iPhones. Apple instead committed the plant to making MacBook Pros. Trump was left to tour an almost-empty new facility with no iPhones inside.

Now Apple has said it will invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. While the figure is large, it likely reflects Apple’s traditional patterns of spending, and Reuters reported that the company had similar, matching pledges in the Biden administration and under Trump’s first term. In other words, Apple is likely making a statement in numbers alone, but in practice, Apple is offering little or nothing new.

Trump has suggested that companies that don’t follow through on such promises would be retroactively slapped with tariffs. But in practice, Apple seems to be continuing its historical pace of investment and keeping assembly outside the U.S. It hasn’t changed its calculus for whether to pay tariffs, and Trump has thus far chosen not to force the issue.

Wall Street seems to think Apple is simply playing the long game as smartly as possible. Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments, a firm that owns Apple stock, told Reuters that Apple’s latest move was “a savvy solution to the president’s demand that Apple manufacture all iPhones in the U.S.”

Cook’s mix of charm, tokenism, and strategic investments has bought the company more time in the trade war. Trump is now framing incremental developments as progress toward “Made in America,” but that doesn’t change the fact that Apple will almost certainly keep its most complex manufacturing overseas.