Apple has seemingly discovered a new way to wriggle out of President Donald Trump’s trade war: stroking the president’s ego. On Wednesday, Trump said Apple would be spared an upcoming 100 percent tariff on semiconductors, a levy that could have dramatically increased the price of iPhones in global markets. Reuters reported that the exemption came the same day Apple promised another $100 billion in U.S. investment and handed Trump a personalized statue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the statue was made by Corning, a company that has worked with Apple for decades and produces specialty glass for iPhone screens. The glass was cut into a large circle, and in the middle was a large Apple logo cut out and engraved.” Cook noted that the statue was from Utah and was also on a 24-karat gold base with the president’s name engraved on it. Cook signed the statue himself, with a handwritten “Made in America” note on the bottom.

Trump, who has long used his office to browbeat corporations into making more products in the U.S., seemed to hit the right note with the gift. At a presentation in the Oval Office, Trump declared that Apple —and any company that “build[s] factories in our country”—would be charged “no charge” at the time of tariff implementation. The announcement is a huge break for Apple, which had been in the crosshairs of Trump’s trade war ire for months over the location of its supply chain.

The news comes as part of a tough spring for Apple. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Apple in recent months for not moving portions of iPhone production from China to the U.S. Instead, he complained, Apple was moving to India. In April, Trump said his trade policies would mean “Made in India” iPhones soon. In May, things grew more personal, with Trump openly calling for Cook by name and saying he had a “little problem with Tim Cook” while traveling in the Middle East. In the same conversation, according to reports, Trump told Cook directly: “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.”

Experts, however, have for months said moving iPhone production into the U.S. would be a massive, multi-year process at best, and quite possibly impossible. Nevertheless, Trump’s team made noises that it was possible, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick even saying Apple was looking into “robotic arms” to replicate the precise work of its Chinese factories in the U.S.

Wednesday’s announcement means Trump has backed away from that demand. Trump had previously threatened a 25 percent tariff on Apple if its iPhones weren’t made in the U.S. Now, he calls the recent move “a significant step toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that iPhones sold in America also are made in America.” For now, Trump has agreed to hold off on those hardline demands.

Cook has said parts for the iPhone, such as semiconductors, the glass, and Face ID modules, are already made in the U.S., but he gave no indication when assembly of the final product would be moved into the country and instead said it would stay overseas “for a while.”

This isn’t new territory for Apple. Cook has long been able to mollify Trump by promising to invest in the U.S. while artfully dodging the more specific demands he has made. During Trump’s first term, for example, Cook worked to curry the president’s favor by promising to invest in U.S. factories. Trump bragged that Apple would soon be building three “big, beautiful” plants in America. In the end, just one was built, and it made face masks, not consumer electronics. In 2019, Trump gave a speech at an Austin, Texas, Apple facility that he said would make iPhones. Apple instead assigned the plant to MacBook Pro production.

Apple has now promised to invest a total of $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. But while that sounds like a lot, it also roughly tracks with how much Apple typically spends in the U.S. and matches announcements made during the Biden administration and Trump’s previous term, according to Reuters. In other words, Apple may be offering little or nothing in the way of new investments.

Trump has threatened to retroactively apply tariffs to companies that don’t meet the demands Apple just made. But Apple is moving ahead with a longstanding investment strategy while keeping iPhone assembly overseas. The math on tariffs has not changed. Trump has not decided to make the call on tariffs. He’s not even trying, at least for now.

Wall Street analysts consider Apple’s decision to make investments a smart move. Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments, which has Apple in its portfolio, told Reuters that Apple’s move is “a savvy solution to the president’s demand that Apple manufacture all iPhones in the U.S.”

Cook has bought Apple more time through charm, symbolic gestures, and investments that are likely already in the company’s long-term plan. For now, Trump is happy to call Apple’s progress “Made in America,” but Apple’s most sophisticated manufacturing operations will likely stay overseas, at least for the immediate future, and without steep tariffs as a penalty.