Apple CEO Tim Cook Attends Executive Tech Summit at Trump Tower

[MacRumors]

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Trump Tower along with other prominent tech executives on Wednesday as they gathered in New York for a summit with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who was accompanied by three of his adult children.

According to The New York Times, the meeting was attended by 11 other tech executives, including Alphabet's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, and Tesla's Elon Musk. Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence was also at the table.

Cook sat two seats away from Trump, beside Facebook board member and Trump transition official Peter Thiel, and listened as the president-in-waiting began by heaping praise on the executives in the room.

"This is a truly amazing group of people. Anything we can do to help this go along, and we're going to be there for you... you'll call my people, you'll call me - it doesn't make any difference, we have no formal chain of command here. We're going to do fair trade deals, we're going to make it a lot easier for you to trade."

According to The Wall Street Journal, executives were then invited to introduce themselves one by one.

"Tim Cook, very good to be here," said the Apple CEO. "And I look very forward to talking to the President-elect about the things that we can do to help you achieve some things you want."

A number of issues were discussed once the press were ushered out of the meeting room. According to several executives who attended the meet, topics included trade, immigration, and vocational education - the latter being one of the main reasons Cook has previously given for why most Apple products are made in China.

Trump has rebuked Apple in the past for basing the vast majority of it assembly plants in other countries. While campaigning earlier this year, Trump said "we're going to get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries", while he has also threatened to introduce a 45 percent tax on products imported from China.

According to USA Today, Trump also told executives at the meeting that he planned to slash the corporate tax rate in the U.S. in order to make it a lot easier to repatriate money kept overseas.

Referring to his commerce and economic administration picks, Trump said they would "make it easier for you to trade across borders, because there are a lot of restrictions, a lot of problems". He added, "If you have any ideas on that, that would be great."

The meeting reportedly ran for two hours and included "productive discussions about job creation and economic growth", said incoming White House Chief of Staff Renice Priebus. At the end of the summit, Trump suggested, and tech leaders agreed to, meeting quarterly, according to a person briefed on the meeting. 

Cook was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the election campaign and hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic presidential nominee in August on behalf of himself. In a company-wide memo issued following Trump's victory, Cook urged Apple employees to "move forward together" despite "uncertainties ahead".

Despite any personal misgivings he may have had in the past, Cook reportedly stayed at Trump Tower after the summit was over to meet privately with the President-Elect for further discussions.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple CEO Tim Cook Attends Executive Tech Summit at Trump Tower

 

[Avieshek]

Let's see, whose politics prove better, Tim or Trump.

 

[newdeal]

Say what you want about Trump but he at least is starting to get work done and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Compare that to Trudeau up here in Canada who has been in power for a year and all he has to show for it are a bunch of selfies from around the world

 

[Dave245]

Tim does not look happy to be there, the look on his face says it all.

 

[Geert76]

Tim to Donald: "let's make America thinner!"

 

[djcerla]

Seating speaks volumes.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Trump: "You will all meet me in the boardroom and someone will be fired."
Cook Reaction (see photo)

 

[shk718]

Why on earth were Trumps children at this meeting??? Aren't they running his businesses??? Trump will go down in history as the most corrupt president America has ever had.

 

[Chicane-UK]

I'm most definitely no fan of Trump, but I have to admire this kind of approach. It's very unusual, seems like a break in protocol from the norm, and he just want to cut red tape to help businesses do better in the USA. It'll certainly be an interesting couple of years.

 

[Jim L]

Trump will make Tim his apprentice....

Maybe he will at least talk him into doing some proper updates to the iMac, Mac Pro and Mac mini.

 

[2457282]

I don't know how much of this was just optics. But I do hope that this conversation leads to something positive. One thing for sure is that these companies rely a great deal on intelectual talent from abroad. Therefore, education and immigration go hand in hand. We need to train/educate our citizens better if they are to compete for jobs in America. We cannot simply build walls and kick people out because we lack the talent to get things done right now. Let's see what changes as a result of this meeting. #hopeful

 

[Telos101]

This says it all really...

 

[ninethirty]

Not all Canadians feel this way.

Say what you want about Trump but he at least is starting to get work done and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Compare that to Trudeau up here in Canada who has been in power for a year and all he has to show for it are a bunch of selfies from around the world

 

[oftheheavens]

As long as Trump isn't 100% bullheaded towards these deals, this man could make this country some serious money (while lowering the profits slightly of the fortune 500 imo). This country, Apple included, since I have been able to remember things has grown towards a society that wants to build/create the fastest to market and they want to use the lowest bidder. Some states it is law to accept the lowest bidder because it is supposed to help the "little guys" when in reality the big dogs eat the loss to accept the contract usually setting them up for a long term relationship with the company and of course rising rates every time the re-up.

Things used to be made of the best materials, yeah it made some things heavy, but it made them run forever. I wish we would go back to that at least slightly. Use better materials, make them in the US and export them to other countries. In this scenario the company would stop needing to mark up (especially electronics) some 2-300%, use better materials and settle for a good 100-150% profit per unit. I suppose I am rambling but I think you get my point. I hope Trump helps with enticing companies to come back to the states, build our own stuff with better quality equipment, everyone makes decent money without crazy taxes (as long as you build here) and the overall economy improves. Time will tell.
[doublepost=1481807491][/doublepost]

This says it all really...View attachment 678143

I don't know what it says actually, so I am missing what you are implying.

1. Trump looks like an outsider in this photo
2. Cook looks absolutely "thrilled to be there"
3. The 2 on far right are boning and everyone else is just now putting it together. Cook could care less.
4. Everyone likes water but Trump
5. Whomever that is on the left is out of his mind for not wearing a tie to meat people of this caliber.

So "says it all" yeah I guess it does say a lot hehe

 

[Admiral]

Not all Canadians feel this way.

Right you are. Many Canadians are delusional. Those that are, still apologize for Trudeau. Face it, you elected the Obama of the North, but unlike Americans you actually had years and years of real-life observation of Chicago Jesus and still went for it.

 

[k2k koos]

funny, making all these promises on trade and then turns around, 'if you got any ideas on that, that would be great'. Call me sceptical but it seems the man has just confirmed he was full of hot air and now needs these business leaders to bail him out as he himself actually hasn't thought things trough , just promised a lot with no plan....

 

[TheBuffather]

Tim does not look happy to be there, the look on his face says it all.

Eh, it's very hard to get a picture of someone's feelings from a split-second snapshot. Pictures don't always tell the whole story, especially when this particular photo could be described as "concentrating," "listening," "pondering," etc. I'd say Cook has much more to be dismayed at within his company's latest products than Trump getting tough on companies that shun American workers.

 

[thekeyring]

Say what you want about Trump but he at least is starting to get work done and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Compare that to Trudeau up here in Canada who has been in power for a year and all he has to show for it are a bunch of selfies from around the world

Here in the UK, there is certainly a feeling among my age group (under 25) of wanting politicians to *do* something.

"Let us know what will happen if you win, and then if you win, do what you said."

There's nothing that's happening right now that I feel would have been different if Labour or Lib Dems had won the last general election - other than there wouldn't have been an EU referendum.
[doublepost=1481807774][/doublepost]

funny, making all these promises on trade and then turns around, 'if you got any ideas on that, that would be great'. Call me sceptical but it seems the man has just confirmed he was full of hot air and now needs these business leaders to bail him out as he himself actually hasn't thought things trough , just promised a lot with no plan....

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have voted for him (if I was a US citizen). However, you can also interpret it to mean "I have ideas, but it would be good to hear ideas from your perspective, too, because you will have thought of things that I might have missed."

Then again, compared to others on this forum, I'm a crazy optimistic.

 

[Tunster]

Why on earth were Trumps children at this meeting??? Aren't they running his businesses??? Trump will go down in history as the most corrupt president America has ever had.

He hasn't even started yet. And not sure what you're defining as "corrupt".

Give the man a chance and see if he falls on his sword.

 

[LordVic]

Say what you want about Trump but he at least is starting to get work done and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Compare that to Trudeau up here in Canada who has been in power for a year and all he has to show for it are a bunch of selfies from around the world

What a load of crap.

He's done more in 1 year for our international deals, climate change initiatives and started the ball rolling on reforming our drug policies, electoral reform, rolling back Harper era unconstitutional laws, all while taking selfies.

Don't let that good old conservative narrative show through

Now Trudeau ain't perfect. I expect him to honour his promises and I will hold him to it, but to repeat this mindless conservative talking point about doing nothing and only taking selfies is juvenile and factually wrong

He's not been perfect so far, but you can track what he's been doing

https://www.trudeaumetre.ca/
(BTW: this page is not run by Trudeau or the liberal party and is a 3rd private party who decided to run it. Trudeau himself has said he reguarly checks the site as it gives him feedback on how he's doing)

And to think trump is somehow already better than Trudeau for the appointments he's done is terrifying. Heck, I'd still prefer Harper over a trump anyday

 

[0098386]

Tim's excellent face there.

 

[gnasher729]

Say what you want about Trump but he at least is starting to get work done and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Compare that to Trudeau up here in Canada who has been in power for a year and all he has to show for it are a bunch of selfies from around the world

What work is he starting to get done exactly? So far the only things I noticed was upsetting the British PM and getting a rebuke, upsetting the Chinese government, and being best chums with a man who is responsible for the death of thousands in Syria.

 

[jimbobb24]

Did they find Trumps random comment generator. That thing is amazing. I never know what he is going to say next.

 

[az431]

I'm most definitely no fan of Trump, but I have to admire this kind of approach. It's very unusual, seems like a break in protocol from the norm, and he just want to cut red tape to help businesses do better in the USA. It'll certainly be an interesting couple of years.

Not unusual, original, or a break from protocol from the past.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/barach-obama-tech-ceos-nsa-104881

 

[Dave245]

Eh, it's very hard to get a picture of someone's feelings from a split-second snapshot. Pictures don't always tell the whole story, especially when this particular photo could be described as "concentrating," "listening," "pondering," etc. I'd say Cook has much more to be dismayed at within his company's latest products than Trump getting tough on companies that shun American workers.

in fact you can tell a lot by a picture of someone sometimes. Their facial expression for example. You think Cook has "much more to be dismayed at within his company's products" let me guess Apple is doomed, Tim Cook should go, blah blah blah.