Apple seems to have discovered a new way to avoid the tariffs in President Donald Trump’s trade war: Stroke the president’s ego. On Wednesday, Trump announced that Apple had been spared a 100 percent tariff on semiconductors, which would have significantly driven up the price of iPhones around the world. The exemption, first reported by Reuters, was announced on the same day that Apple announced $100 billion in new investments for the U.S. economy and presented Trump with a special, custom-made statue.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, explained that the statue was made by Corning, a long-time supplier to Apple that makes specialty glass for iPhones. It was designed by a former corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps who now works at Apple. The sculptor cut a huge piece of glass into a circle and then etched an imposing Apple logo into the middle. Cook wrote in a note that the statue, which he said came from Utah, had a base of 24-karat gold that was engraved with Trump’s name. He added his own touch with a handwritten note: “Made in America.”

The Trump administration, which has been haranguing corporations to move more of their manufacturing to the U.S., appeared to appreciate the gesture. During the unveiling in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump confirmed that Apple—and any other company that builds factories in the U.S.—would pay “no charge” at all when the tariffs on semiconductors were officially put in place. It’s a major victory for the company, which has been subject to months of taunts by the president on the location of its supply chain.

Trump has had more than a few words for Apple over the course of the past few months. During the spring, he had berated the company for moving some iPhone production to India instead of bringing production into the U.S. In April, he promised that his trade policy would soon lead to “Made in America” iPhones. By May, the rhetoric had turned more confrontational. Trump openly bemoaned a “little problem I have with Tim Cook” while on a trip through the Middle East. He reportedly told Cook in a phone call: “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 have long said, however, that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to bring iPhone assembly to the U.S. in any significant way for years, if ever. Trump’s administration nonetheless embraced a line that it could be done and that the change was just a matter of when, not if. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pushed the false narrative in particular, claiming that Apple was exploring the use of “robotic arms” to try to match the accuracy of its production in China by replicating it in the U.S.

Cook has, over time, opened up about more components of the iPhone being made in the U.S. Semiconductors, glass, and Face ID modules, for example, are all made in America, he has confirmed. But he has not set a specific timetable for when final assembly could be done in the U.S. and has left open the possibility that iPhones would continue to be assembled in Asia “for a while.”

Apple has played this game before and done so to great effect under Trump’s first term. Cook has spent years carefully appeasing the president with promises of investments in the U.S. while deftly avoiding some of his harshest demands. In 2017, Trump bragged about Apple’s commitment to building three “big, beautiful” plants in the U.S. One was built. It makes face masks. Another company that Trump visited in Texas in 2019, the president promised, would soon be making iPhones. It was instead dedicated to the production of MacBook Pros.

Apple has now pledged to spend $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. While that sounds like a lot, analysts told Reuters that the commitment is roughly in line with the amount Apple has spent for years and is similar to what it had already promised both the Biden administration and Trump’s previous term. In short, it’s not a major increase.

Companies that fail to meet such pledges could face retroactive tariffs. But for now, Apple is just continuing to go with a business-as-usual plan of making iPhones abroad while making vaguely specific commitments to bring manufacturing to the U.S. It hasn’t changed the calculus on tariffs, but Trump has so far chosen not to push the issue.

For Wall Street, that’s a smart move. “I think this is a savvy solution to the president’s demand that Apple manufacture all iPhones in the U.S.,” Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments, which owns Apple shares, told Reuters.

Cook is using his combination of charm, well-timed symbolism, and carefully crafted investments to once again win some time in the trade war. Trump has been happy to trumpet “Made in America” progress, but Apple is likely to keep most of its complex manufacturing abroad for the foreseeable future—and do so without incurring the cost of exorbitant tariffs.