WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook for a Friday night dinner on the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort, in keeping with an individual accustomed to the matter who was not approved to remark publicly.
Cook is the newest in a string of huge tech leaders — together with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — who’ve sought to enhance their standing with the incoming president after uneven relations with Trump throughout his first time period.
Trump has mentioned he has spoken with Cook in regards to the firm’s long-running tax battles with the European Union.
The assembly comes lower than two months after Trump mentioned he spoke to Cook by telephone, and shortly after Apple misplaced its final enchantment in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in again taxes to Ireland.
“He mentioned the European Union has simply fined us $15 billion,” Trump recalled of his dialog with Cook, in an October interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David. “Then on prime of that they bought fined by the European Union one other $2 billion.”
The resolution by the EU prime court docket was the finale to a dispute that centered on sweetheart offers that Dublin was providing to draw multinational companies with minimal taxes throughout the 27-nation bloc. The European Commission in 2016 dominated that Ireland granted Apple illegal help that Ireland was required to get well.
Trump’s transition crew and Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about his dinner with Cook.
OpenAI CEO Altman is planning to make a $1 million private donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, the corporate confirmed Friday. Amazon and Meta, the mother or father firm of Facebook and Instagram, confirmed this week they’d every donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
During his first time period, Trump criticized Amazon and railed towards the political protection at The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized a few of Trump’s previous rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon additionally argued in a court docket case that Trump’s bias towards the corporate harmed its probabilities of profitable a $10 billion Pentagon contract.
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More not too long ago, Bezos has struck a extra conciliatory tone. Last week, he mentioned at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second time period whereas additionally endorsing president-elect’s plans to chop rules.
The donation from Meta got here simply weeks after Meta CEO Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago.
During the 2024 marketing campaign, Zuckerberg didn’t endorse a candidate for president, however voiced a extra constructive stance towards Trump. Earlier this 12 months, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination try.
