Cook’s Show of Fealty to Trump Is an Important Part of His Apple Legacy
The CEO traded photo ops for concessions in the president’s trade war.
Apple CEO Tim Cook at an announcement of new products in Cupertino, California, in September.
Photographer: Godofredo A. Vásquez/APIn a Truth Social post this morning, President Donald Trump recalled the first time Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook phoned him with a problem during his first term in office. Cook, then five years into his tenure as chief executive officer, was apparently facing a big corporate challenge that only Trump could resolve.
The leader of the free world was instantly flattered, he wrote, to be receiving a call from the leader of the world’s most valuable company. “I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that?” Trump remembered. “I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass.’”