Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he will force Apple to manufacture their products in the US instead of China if he is elected president.

Speaking at Liberty University, a Christian university in Virginia which was founded by evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell in 1971, Trump told a crowd of students and reporters that he would make Apple move their operations to America in order to create jobs.

At one point in his 45-minute speech, he said: "We're going to get Apple to build their damn computers and things in this country instead of other countries."

Trump also said if he becomes President he will try to impose a 35 per cent tax on American companies who outsource their manufacturing overseas - an increase on the 15 per cent outsourcing tax he proposed in his 2011 book Time to Get Tough.

Currently, Apple only produces its high-end Mac Pro computers in the US, at a factory in Austin, Texas.

Most other Apple products are made in China, many of them in Foxconn's sprawling manufacturing complex in Shenzen.

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Trump has historically been a strong supporter of free trade in the past, but he appeared to have changed his views slightly in Monday's speech.

As CNET reports, he said: "Free trade is good. But we have to do it [force companies to manufacture in the US]. Or we won't have a country left."

As Gizmodo points out, Trump would have a hard time enacting these policies if he makes it into the Oval Office - forcing Apple (and the numerous other companies that have operations in China) to move their manufacturing to the US would involve passing a host of wide-reaching and highly controversial laws, which would be unlikely to make it through the US political system.

Due to the huge amount of manufacturing that takes place in China, the supply chain there is much longer than in the US, making it easier and cheaper to obtain the materials used to make the latest gadgets - no amount of legislation would provide a quick fix to this problem.

The cost of labour is also much cheaper in China. Moving their factories to the US, where wages are much higher, could potentially cause Apple to start charging more for their products.