Before President Donald Trump’s recent Middle East trip, the White House invited CEOs and representatives from numerous U.S. companies to accompany him. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, chose not to attend, according to two sources familiar with the matter. This decision seemed to irritate President Trump. During his visits to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, he made several remarks critical of Mr. Cook and Apple.
Tripp Mickle for The New York Times:
During his speech in Riyadh, Mr. Trump paused to praise Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, for traveling to the Middle East along with the White House delegation. Then he knocked Mr. Cook.
“I mean, Tim Cook isn’t here but you are,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Huang at an event attended by chief executives like Larry Fink of the asset manager BlackRock, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jane Fraser of Citigroup and Lisa Su of the semiconductor company AMD.
Later in Qatar, Mr. Trump said he “had a little problem with Tim Cook.” The president praised Apple’s investment in the United States, then said he had told Mr. Cook, “But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.”
On Friday morning, Mr. Trump caught much of his own administration and Apple’s leadership off guard with a social media post threatening tariffs of 25 percent on iPhones made anywhere except the United States. The post thrust Apple back into the administration’s cross hairs…
Nu Wexler, principal at Four Corners Public Affairs and a former Washington policy communications executive at Google and Facebook, said Mr. Cook’s “very public relationship” with Mr. Trump has backfired.
“It has put Apple at a disadvantage because every move, including a potential concession from Trump, is scrutinized,” Mr. Wexler said. Because Mr. Trump didn’t “have much incentive to either go easy on Apple or cut a deal on tariffs,” he said, “the incentive to crack down is much stronger.”
The timing of the White House’s new tariff plan couldn’t be worse for Mr. Cook, who has led Apple for nearly 14 years.
Last month, the company suffered a stinging defeat in an App Store trial. The judge in the trial rebuked Apple executives, saying they had “outright lied under oath” and that “Cook chose poorly,” and ruled that Apple had to change how it operates the App Store. Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief designer who became estranged from Mr. Cook and left the company in 2019, joined OpenAI last week to build a potential iPhone competitor. Its Vision Pro mixed reality headset, released in January 2024 to fanfare, has been a disappointment. And in March, Apple postponed its promised release of a new Siri, raising fresh doubts about its ability to compete in the industry’s race to adopt artificial intelligence.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple needed a new CEO at least a decade ago. Instead, the endless iteration parade continues, with each year’s entries now unveiled via canned videos, growing ever more tiresome, diffused with ever more vapor, as each new paradigm shift is blindly missed by an aging, boring-as-beige CEO surrounded by burnt-out, surfeited VPs.
We’ve long been the canaries in the coal mine.
This lack of focus, lack of attention to detail, lack of striving for perfection will catch up to Apple eventually if it is not arrested and corrected in time.
So – sigh – we once again present to Apple CEO Tim Cook, where the buck supposedly stops, the Trophy for Misplaced Priorities:
Apple is not firing on all cylinders.
The quality has been slipping for years and the mistakes, bad designs, stupid decisions, product delays and worse have been piling up. – MacDailyNews, May 18, 2017
Steve Jobs is irreplaceable, but someone with vision, taste, and focus is what’s required here.
The magic of Steve Jobs was vision, focus on the products from the user’s point of view, fastidious attention to detail, and next-level marketing acumen. – MacDailyNews, January 29, 2018
Steve Jobs could make a power cord seem insanely great. Tim Cook could put a room to sleep while unveiling teleportation; he makes watching paint dry seem like must-see event.
Apple is currently helmed by a charisma black hole. Sparks are therefor not emitted.
Lacking a charismatic leader who could sell ice cubes to eskimos, execution is the key. High quality products and services that just work with timely updates in sufficient supply at launch… Apple’s issues with late, old, sometimes problematic products and services do more to dampen excitement and devotion than anything. – MacDailyNews, January 4, 2019
You know, some people get upset when we point out that Tim Cook is a boring, reactive caretaker who’s not really the best person to be running Apple today or for at least the past several years. Operations manager Cook should have been a 3-5 year stopgap after Steve Jobs’ untimely passing, running the iteration playbook, providing continuity for the company while it found a real CEO. Instead, he hung on — and keeps hanging on — well past his sell-by date. – MacDailyNews, August 22, 2024
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TImmy is very busy preparing for “pride month” and announcing new rainbow watch bands!
With watchOS 11.5, Apple once again leads with a new Pride watch face. At this point, how many do we need?
It feels like every update is more about social signaling than product improvement. We’ve got powerful health features, training tools, and performance updates… but the spotlight is always on Pride.
Can every belief or identity get this kind of platform? Or just the ones Apple chooses?
I miss when Apple led with innovation, not ideology. Pretty sure Steve Jobs would’ve kept the focus on the product.
We now have enough Pride watch face and band iterations to wrap every Pride-wearing Apple Watch around the globe 8 times. Yes, I did the math (estimated). And more than the population of the world.
Don’t forget the pregnant man emoji!
Meanwhile Donald is on a golf course fudging his score.
Sounds like you should switch to Windows since you are so offended that Cook isn’t kissing the fat ass of your favorite mob boss.
Apple will be just fine, if it continues to act with respect and good faith with its suppliers and customers. Of course Timmy has always flown the gay pride flag, it’s who he is. Who cares. It doesn’t hurt anyone.
The USA, however, is burning the bridges with all its former allies, and will be in recession or stagflation soon as the unilaterally stupid trade restrictions take effect. It will take years to recover. And no, neither Canada nor Greenland is ever going to become a US state. The insulting proposals to take over sovereign territories is beyond insulting.
A cure needs to be found for the poor TDS sufferers.
“… burning the bridges with all its former allies,…” Did you hear the great news? The Trump backed nationalist for Poland’s President won and beat out the favored globalist candidate.
How much longer must we endure the caretaker which is Tim Cook?
And becoming a broken record…
Failed Car Program
Failing Vision Pro program
completely Missed AI and in rapid catch-up mode – if possible.
Dude managed for 5-7 years too long at the helm. Need a visionary and innovator to lead the way and Cook ain’t it. Duh…
Any suggestions? Because the best people are running their own companies and aren’t going to take a pay and power cut to run Apple. Jobs himself handpicked Cook to succeed him apparently without any consideration for him being a short-term “caretaker” CEO. The idea of the top person being the creative trailblazer is also a distortion. What’s important is for leaders to hire good lieutenants, delegate and allow for creative freedom. Don’t tell me there aren’t MANY brilliant people at Apple who for systemic reasons don’t have enough sway. Maybe Cook is the bottleneck but there’s no silver-bullet unicorn free agent out there.
Craig Federighi would be a logical choice but who knows if he’s a good enough leader to run the entire organization. I heard from someone who met him that he’s an a-hole “do you know who I am?” but then again so was Jobs so it might be a good fit. Bringing an outsider who has no experience in Apple’s culture and structure could make things much worse, be careful what you wish for…
Best to stay clear of the chaos that is the White House. MacDaily has become a Trump mouthpiece rather than a Mac-centric news site.
People outside the USA can see what’s happening and now working around the chaos.
The business performance of Cook in his worst year is substantially more successful AND SUSTAINABLE than the 6x bankrupt, 31x felon that this site worships.
Speaking of waning influence … when Donald loses his last appeal for his attempts to take dictatorial power, including of course the power of taxation, away from the peoples’ representatives …. youll see manbaby melt down like the empty suit he is.
All the reforms that could have been passed easily through the Republican legislature aren’t happening, because they are almost as inept as the Executive. So easily rescinded exec memos will be reversed in 3 years, and hopefully someone with fiscal responsibility will also undo the reckless spending AND reckless destruction of international trade. The USA has been severe crippled by the make-it-up-as-we-go diplomacy , the vindictive international diplomacy, and the now record debts this administration has presided over. Every nation in the world is now working hard to replace the USA as a trading partner, because nobody can trust the POTUS to keep his word.
Awww… I bet you were so happy while the country under the senile idiot walking cadaver was in the WH. When he allowed MILLIONS of illegals in to country, did NOTHING to stop Russia to invade Ukraine, the economy in shambles while wasting BILLIONS in woke BS.
Wrong. Biden, who actually nominated a competent staff which passed congressional reviews without controversy, urged congress to support Ukraine with weapons. Now Trump has halted the deals, which were profitable to the USA as well as successful in halting Russian ground advances, since Trump thinks he can bargain with his old buddy Putin. Turns out Trump can’t solve anything with “just a phone call”. Trump looks like an idiot, untrusted by both adversaries.
Letting Putin become emperor of the former USSR with new allies North Korea and China would be the worst possible outcome of the situation. No US president has taken the necessary actions to strengthen US-European ties to ensure democracy survives in Eastern Europe. But feckless Donny has done a bang-up job destroying everyone’s confidence in the USA. Donny is happy to bomb Yemen but just doesn’t have the balls to fight communism or even help those countries who are. Or, in this case, since communism no longer exists, it is now Russian oligarchs’ fascism wrapped in a red flag. Something Donald has repeatedly claimed to admire. So much for the USA supporting the expansion of democracy in the world.
Donny must really have enjoyed all those extra curricular activities at his pageants in Moscow, now he’s selling out the efforts of 4 generations of Americans who fought and died to prevent communist takeover of the world. Pathetic.
After years of daily visits to MacDailyNews I am leaving it. Its zeal for the disgusting person at the White House is beyond endurance
Good riddance
Don’t see the “zeal” you describe. It’s invisible. I do see a lot of very warranted criticism of the current management of Apple.
A cure needs to be found for the poor TDS sufferers.
“People outside the USA can see what’s happening and now working around the chaos.” Did you hear the great news? The Trump backed nationalist for Poland’s President just won and beat out the favored globalist candidate. A cure needs to be found for the poor TDS sufferers.
We have a president who virtually never thinks rationally, logically, or even in sequential steps. Nor can he fully comprehend causes and effects. His base of knowledge on virtually all subjects relating to governance and economics and world affairs is minimal.
He lacks empathy, conscience, morality, and remorse for the wrongs he commits. He is a pathological liar. He has severe and destructive personality disorders-narcissism, sociopathy, and paranoia. He speaks at the level of a fifth-grader, at best. He can barely spell and do simple math. And his already limited mental capacity deteriorates with each passing day.
No one has lasting influence with this idiot.
The prior one actually had no capacity to think! LOL
Too bad Biff Tannen has no such thing as a brain…
Almost half of Americans are too blind and brainless to notice that evidence, alas!
WTF?! Obama has been out of the White House for quite a while now. Why bring him up other than the fact he was controlling Sleepy Joe.
Sorry, but there was an election last November, and the man you described is no longer President. A guy named Trump won, and he is really making strides. He’s correcting all of Biden’s disasters.
“We have a president who virtually never thinks rationally bla bla bla…”
Your diatribe is based on nothing as usual. What we have now is a President with the courage and tenacity to actually do something other than kick the can down the road and I am grateful.
Don’t you have innocent women and children to bomb, Putin?
We know what you think and we’ll ignore your nonstop lies.
This empty suit is very much kicking your can down the road, and tilting the scales as hard as he can to reward his financial backers. Your children will suffer the recession, and maybe worse, as the reckless deficit gets worse under the watch of the manbaby with orange body paint.
Newsweek online published a story that had this in it. ?”For the first time in over 20 years of polling, Right Direction EXCEEDS Wrong Track today,” Mark Mitchell, a Rasmussen pollster, wrote in a post to X,,,”
The TDS is coming hard from this one!
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/china-magnet-pinch-threatens-car-production-automakers-warn-2025-05-30/
Right track? Whoever was polled in this ridiculous survey must be completely ignorant of industry and business. Might as well ask the family dog for investment advice, you would get equally valid results.
This is America today, and it explains why the debt is out of control and the people keep selecting corrupt government, over and over and over: https://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
Tim Cook FAILED.
He, who incredibly, took Apple from $1B (they called it bankrupt in 1998) to the first $1T, first $2T, first $3T co. in history, nearly wasted his entire legacy, by reducing his iQ to putting all his eggs in 1 basket, China. During C-19, China shut down factories for months, Apple desperately sought outsourcing to alternatives in India, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam etc. but is it too late and are Westerners too closed-minded/short-sighted/immature/infantile/naive to not think China would retaliate by moving out of their country?
Tim met TRUMP so many times, yet still is the most affected by tariffs, making Apple suffer the biggest drop in years, so what is the point of Tim being close to T and where is his/Apple’s leverage?! How useful is Tim now? Is his presidency as dormant/senile as Biden’s? Tim could have been fired by iSteve, who did elect him, since Tim did not use Apple’s mojo since iSteve 2011-10-05, but only used iteration, updates, not even upgrades on all products.
Tim Cook feel ASLEEP at the wheel, failed AppleCar “Project Titan” (2000>20204-02-27), failed iWatch cam, failed Apple Mail, failed Apple social media, failed Search engine, failed HomePod, SmartHome, failed ai etc.
Perhaps Tim’s biggest miss is having let go of JONY IVE? Apple losing its soul/dna/mojo for 14 years since iSteve left an ambience of zero interest for Jony, who left 2019-07. Now Jony sells LoveFrom (off’l; Neo-Bauhaus? ; ) unnamed but prototyped AI hardware (release 2027?) to OpenAI, when he could have made it for Apple, which in so many recent failures could’ve gained its next iPhone moment & saved its mojo! Will the AI neck device by Jony/Altman, as a first in series of OpenAI hardware, kill Apple/Meta/Goo/Msft/Xiaomi/Huawei like an unexpected tsunami, as they figured out the perfect balance for the elixir or alchemy of iDevices, that defies gravity & flummoxes all competitors that go the wrong way…
Of course, it is certainly not a pride to keep contact with a dangerous liar who plays with his country and the world as if it were a Monopoly game…
First apple needs to return to live WWDC event. No pre recorded presentation, everything needs to be a live demo. No more DEI representation at the WWDC. Put the people forward that actual have ideas and can lead a talk without a teleprompter. Apple has turned into a fake mockery of their old self. First step on the road to recovery is return to live people. No more social engineered fake presentations by clueless people chosen as a diversity check box.
Whhaaaaattt? Greasing Taco Don’s paw with a million bucks doesn’t endear him to the convicted felon? Sucking up to him – but not enough, apparently?
Maybe Timmy shouldn’t have expected loyalty from a guy who measures that in time-stamped dollars. Giving him a million bucks months ago; jeez, that expired just about immediately.
Trump is trashing America “the brand” worldwide. Tourism to USA down, American product purchases are cratering in Europe. The world is pivoting away from American goods and services…. And i suspect it will continue whilst the Trump is at the helm.
It’s making you “Think Stupid”.
A take on Apple’s “Think Different”, as some MDN commenters have gone from that Apple philosophy, to not thinking at all, the TDS philosophy.
Take a hard look at the ossified, glad-handing, CYA, elitist Board of Directors. There was a time when Board Members were intelligent, insightful, people who actually created new stuff. Now, at best, the Board Members just administrated stuff created ages ago by others. Caretaking is their stock in trade. Boring.
I love the arm chair quarterbacks. We are so smart but the guy running Apple is so stupid. If you want to concentrate on stupid look no further than your convicted felon TACO baby bone spurs. You know when he is lying, his lips are moving. The world sees the shithole country you are becoming under his NAZI rule but you cannot see the forest for the trees. You will regret the day you alienated all your allies to cozy up to the dictators of the world. Just think how bad it has to be to piss off Canadians so bad that they boycott your country and products. Canadians will put up with just about anything yet you managed to screw them over. I sure hope you are proud while your crops rot in the fields
John ScHmIT,
Stupid is as stupid does; and you’ve proved it…