Apple presses case that it has created millions of U.S. jobs

Although it does nearly all of its final assembly of products outside the U.S., Apple is trying to drive home the case that it is a big creator of domestic jobs.CEO Tim Cook made that point in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday and Apple followed up Wednesday evening by debuting a new website devoted to its job creation (as first reported by Axios). The iPhone maker says it is responsible for more than 2 million U.S. jobs. In addition to its own 80,000 U.S. workers, Apple says it created nearly half a million jobs at U.S. suppliers and 1.5 million app creators.Why it matters: It's clearly an effort to counter the notion that the company doesn't invest in the U.S. Apple is further attacking that narrative by announcing a $1 billion fund to spur advanced manufacturing in the U.S.While it is sure to be welcome news to President Donald Trump, Apple chose to make the news directly rather than allowing the Administration to announce it and take the credit. This is not a surprise, though, as Apple likes to tell its own story rather than allow others to do so.Apple is walking a particularly fine line with the Trump administration — working with the president on some issues while opposing it on others, such as with the travel ban."My view on working with any government in the world is that there are things that you will agree upon and things that you will not," Cook told CNBC. "And you don't want to let the things you don't mean that you don't have any interface. Because what we want to do when we disagree is we want to say why we view the way we do."