Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner laughs with President Donald Trump throughout a gathering within the White Home, Washington, March 6, 2019.
Leah Millis | Reuters
President Donald Trump praised Tim Cook dinner in a prolonged Reality Social submit on Tuesday, calling the outgoing Apple CEO an “unbelievable man” and boasting that Cook dinner had appealed to him when he wanted assist.
“For me it started with a telephone name from Tim in the beginning of my First Time period,” Trump wrote. “He had a pretty big drawback that solely I, as President, might repair.”
Trump continued, “Once I acquired the decision I stated, wow, it is Tim Apple (Cook dinner!) calling, how huge is that? I used to be very impressed with myself to have the top of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass.'”
Representatives from Apple did not instantly reply to a request for touch upon Trump’s Reality Social submit.
The submit is emblematic of White Home relationship dynamics underneath Trump. Enterprise leaders have at instances proven a willingness to indulge the president so as to advance their pursuits.
Daniel Weiner, director of the elections and authorities program on the Brennan Middle for Justice, stated Trump’s submit was a view into his “nakedly transactional and in addition nakedly personalistic method to governing.”
“It’s this concept that the expectation is that CEOs of highly effective firms ought to simply name him up and provide homage, and in change get favors,” Weiner stated. “It might be the best way governance has occurred in actuality at numerous factors in our historical past, nevertheless it’s definitely by no means been the perfect. And now it’s type of being extolled as the thought.”
Cook dinner, who’s stepping down after an almost 15-year tenure, has been significantly efficient at navigating the administration. He appealed on to Trump throughout Trump’s first and second phrases to form insurance policies on taxes, tariffs and different points affecting the iPhone maker.
The overtures usually labored. Final yr, Cook dinner secured an exemption from Trump’s sweeping tariffs on telephones, computer systems and chips, that are vital to Apple’s backside line. Trump acknowledged that he “helped Tim Cook dinner” with the transfer, although the White Home has denied granting favors to profit particular firms.
“Throughout my 5 years as President, Tim would name me, however by no means an excessive amount of, and I’d assist him the place I might,” Trump wrote on Tuesday. “Years latter [sic], after 3 or 4 BIG HELPS, I began to say to folks, anybody who would pay attention, that this man is an incredible supervisor and chief.”
Cook dinner, in some circumstances, went past telephone calls to attraction to Trump. In August, he introduced Trump with a Pure gold-and-glass statue bearing the phrases “Made in U.S.A.” as Apple introduced an extra $100 billion dedication to American manufacturing.
John Ternus, at the moment a senior vp of {hardware} engineering, will take the helm at Apple on Sept.1 and Cook dinner will assume the position of government chairman. Apple hinted that it’ll proceed to leverage Cook dinner’s deft dealing with of politicians.
“Cook dinner will help with sure facets of the corporate, together with partaking with policymakers around the globe,” Apple stated in a press launch.
Tech cozies up
Trump’s unfiltered perception into how Cook dinner gained his favor comes as different Silicon Valley leaders have adopted an analogous playbook.
Tech executives from Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta have dined with Trump throughout his first and second administrations. Additionally they donated tens of millions to his inauguration fund and the president’s deliberate $300 million White Home ballroom.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, spent greater than 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} to place Trump again into the White Home. He additionally took a place main the Division of Authorities Effectivity, an effort by the Trump administration to slash federal capability.
Regardless of a public conflict over Trump’s “huge, stunning invoice,” Musk, the world’s wealthiest particular person, has stayed near the president. He attended a White Home dinner with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November and reportedly joined a March telephone name between Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A White Home dinner with tech CEOs final September drew heavy scrutiny after attendees took turns praising Trump.
Following the occasion, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was heard on a scorching mic deferring to Trump on the way to body his firm’s spending plans after he stated the corporate would make investments “no less than $600 billion by ’28 within the U.S.”
A number of moments later, Zuckerberg stated to Trump, who was seated subsequent to him, “I am sorry, I wasn’t able to do our … I wasn’t positive what quantity you needed to go together with.”
Zuckerberg later addressed the new mic second in a Threads submit, saying he was confused on the time as a result of Meta was weighing whether or not to speculate “much more” within the U.S. past 2028.
“I wasn’t positive which quantity he was asking about, so I simply shared the decrease quantity by ’28 and clarified with him afterwards,” Zuckerberg wrote.
President Donald Trump speaks as, from left, White Home AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and first woman Melania Trump pay attention throughout a dinner on the State Eating Room of the White Home on Sept. 4, 2025.
Alex Wong | Getty Photographs
Intel took a web page from Cook dinner’s playbook after Trump pressed its CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, to resign following studies of Tan’s ties to China. After Tan went to the White Home for a face-to-face assembly, Trump referred to as him a “success.”
The next week, the U.S. authorities took a ten% stake in Intel by an $8.9 billion funding. That got here from CHIPS Act grants that hadn’t been paid and authorities awards for semiconductor manufacturing.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and a donor to Biden’s 2024 reelection marketing campaign, was a former Trump critic who modified his tune in 2025. He posted to X in January of that yr: “watching @potus extra rigorously not too long ago has actually modified my perspective on him.”
Later in 2025, Trump issued a sweeping government order preempting many state-level rules of AI in what was a large win for Altman and different trade leaders who had been urging such motion.
Altman has flanked Trump at a number of high-profile AI bulletins, together with Trump’s Stargate three way partnership and one other mission within the United Arab Emirates, which have been each unveiled final yr.
The startup CEO, who has maintained an in depth relationship with Trump in his second time period, additionally scored a take care of the Pentagon to deploy superior AI techniques in categorised environments, hours after OpenAI rival Anthropic was blacklisted by the administration.
OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman reportedly donated $25 million to Trump’s tremendous PAC, MAGA Inc., in September.
Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos have cozied as much as Trump throughout his second time period within the White Home, a pointy distinction from his first time period, when Trump steadily attacked the e-retailer. The president usually hurled insults at Bezos and his possession of The Washington Put up, in addition to his tax report.
The Trump administration final yr praised Bezos, who appeared on stage at Trump’s inauguration, for his determination to revamp the Put up’s editorial pages to deal with “private liberties and free markets.”
Final April, Trump stated Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, was “terrific” and “a superb man” after the billionaire assured Trump that the corporate had no plans to show tariff-related surcharges on its web site.
Amazon has been criticized for its $75 million funding in “Melania,” a documentary in regards to the first woman that was produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Melania Trump. Lawmakers referred to as the transfer a “pay-to-play scheme” and questioned why the corporate paid excess of is common for documentaries.
Amazon insisted it did nothing “improper,” based on Selection.
Media overtures
Firms outdoors of Silicon Valley have additionally gone to nice lengths to win over the president.
Final yr, Paramount, which owns CBS, agreed to settle with Trump for $16 million after the president filed a lawsuit alleging an interview with Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” was deceptively edited to make the then-Democratic presidential nominee look higher.
On the time, the lawsuit was seen by some at Paramount as a possible impediment to the corporate’s sale to Skydance, which wanted Trump administration approval.
Paramount on the time stated the lawsuit was “utterly separate from and unrelated to the Skydance transaction.”
ABC was extensively rebuked after it agreed to pay $15 million towards Trump’s presidential library and $1 million in authorized charges to settle a defamation lawsuit he introduced towards the community and anchor George Stephanopoulos.
The lawsuit centered on an interview the place the anchor stated a jury had discovered Trump “chargeable for rape” in two lawsuits filed by the columnist E. Jean Carroll.
In Could 2023, Trump was discovered chargeable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll and ordered to pay $5 million. In January 2024, Trump was additionally discovered chargeable for defamation in a separate lawsuit introduced by Carroll.
In 2025, ABC, and its mum or dad firm Disney, drew extra hearth after suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for feedback he made within the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
ABC and Disney have been underneath stress from Federal Communications Fee Chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, in addition to from Nexstar Media Group, an organization that owns native ABC associates.
Nexstar — which was pursuing a merger with a rival, referred to as Tegna, and wanted FCC approval — had threatened to preempt Kimmel’s late-night present on the stations it owned, successfully blacking out this system in components of the U.S.
The White Home disputed that Kimmel was suspended due to stress from the Trump administration
Kimmel’s suspension ended after lower than every week.
Nexstar’s bid to merge with Tegna was accredited by the FCC, although the acquisition was paused by a federal choose final week.
Correction: This story has been revised to replicate that the White Home AI and crypto czar is David Sacks. A photograph caption in a earlier model misspelled Sacks’ identify.
