Bloomberg Businessweek recently sat down with former U.S. President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort for an exclusive interview. It also reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Trump a $5,999 Mac Pro in 2019 after they struck a deal that granted Apple an exemption from import tariffs on parts made in China.
“I can’t believe how many people are negative on tariffs that are actually smart. Man, is it good for negotiation.” – former U.S. President Donald Trump
Nancy Cook, Joshua Green, and Mario Parker for Bloomberg Businessweek:
In 2019, Apple Inc. looked set to be a victim of Trump’s trade war with China, with billions of dollars at stake, as the president announced 25% import tariffs. He then publicly rejected Apple’s request for an exclusion. “Apple will not be given Tariff waiver, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China,” he wrote on Twitter. “Make them in the USA, no Tariffs!”
At Mar-a-Lago, Trump speaks fondly of Cook and reveals how Apple’s CEO persuaded him to relent. He recalls Cook reaching out privately and asking, “Could I come in and see you?” Trump appreciated the gesture of respect from the head of what at the time was the world’s most valuable company. “That’s impressive,” Trump says. “I said, ‘Yeah, come in.’” Trump remembers that Cook was straightforward. “He said to me, ‘I need help, you have tariffs of 25% and 50% [on Apple products imported from China],’” he recalls. “He said, ‘It would really hurt our business. It would destroy our business, potentially.’” (An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.)
Trump wasn’t looking to do that —mainly, he wanted to demonstrate that he could bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, as he’d promised to do. In his telling, he prevailed upon Cook to expand domestic production. “I said, ‘I’m gonna do something for you guys,’” Trump recalls, “‘but you have to build in this country.’” Four months later, Apple announced it was beginning construction on a campus in Austin. The press release quoted Cook saying: “Building the Mac Pro, Apple’s most powerful device ever, in Austin is both a point of pride and a testament to the enduring power of American ingenuity.” Cook then gifted Trump a $5,999 Mac Pro, one of the first made at the Texas factory.
Had Trump forced Cook’s hand? Doubtful. Apple had originally announced a year earlier that it would invest $1 billion in a new Austin campus, and Mac Pros had been assembled at existing Texas facilities since the Obama era. Nevertheless, the episode registered as a positive for Trump and established Cook at the opposite end of his personal CEO continuum from Zuckerberg. It also created a potential road map for how tech CEOs might navigate a second Trump term.
“I found him to be a very good businessman,” he says of Cook.
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MacDailyNews Note: In addition, as we reported on November 20, 2019, during “the visit, Apple presented President Trump with a custom engraved, laser-etched Mac Pro bottom plate.
This is live, raw video taken during the visit (some language among the photographers and videographers might be NSFW):
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Before any rabid TDS fools chime in: This is Standard operating procedure. Cook did nothing wrong. Trump did nothing wrong. Gifts of this kind are totally legal.
Although the President, like all other federal officers and employees, is prohibited from receiving personal gifts from foreign governments and foreign officials without the consent of Congress (U.S. Const., art. I, §9, cl. 8), the President is generally free to accept unsolicited personal gifts from the American public. (Congressional Research Service, August 16, 2012)
trump’s a crook. IT’S HIS NATURE. remember the snake story he told all of us. he’s been laughing at his supporters from the start.
all you have to is pay trump and he gives you what you want. that is business to him. the competition is about who will cheat, steal, pay bribes and lie the most.
that is not competitive business, that’s what cheaters do.
Apple should not have looked for or accepted any such deal.
cook’s assessment of trump shows the kinds a businessman cook is.
we have learned trump whole life is a lie of trump’s making. trump cheated at every turn, made claims of money we clearly see he does not have. since Job’s death apple has produced no winning products Job’s did not evolve.
cook should resign. he takes too much money out of the company for his own pocket. that money should be going to shareholders. one crook always speaks well of other crooks. birds of a feather. the myth Steve Jobs stole from Xerox we all found out was a lie. Jobs and Apple paid Xerox in stock. too bad Xerox didn’t hold on to those shares. they would be worth almost a trillion. no business, no government, will exist for long if their origins are built on crooked dealings. that’s why the USA has no choice but to deal fairly with the ancestors of the slaves. built on a lie, “all men are equal under the law”. too bad those guys valued money so much that they did not practice what they preached. this is why countries like russia, china, Saudi say america is a hippocratic state, the largest in the world, and has no right to tell anyone anything about how to treat people. trump agrees with them and has said so on many occasions.
TDS doesn’t have to rob the life within. Do a search, there’s a clinic in almost every city. Many people have been healed.
“All men are equal under the law” and “there is none righteous…no, not one.”
The depth of libturd stupidity is staggering
Does this mean Trump is already President of the USA ?.
Yes, November will be the rubber stamp
So, he gave Trump the lowest cost version? How cheap of him
Trump: This new iMac is very great.
Cook: No Don, it’s insanely great!