Apple's Tim Cook takes close seat to Donald Trump at tech summit

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2016
As anticipated, Apple CEO Tim Cook was among a number of tech executives who attended a summit with U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, securing a close seat on the 25th floor of Trump Tower in New York City.




"There's nobody like the people in this room, and anything we can do to help this go along we're going to do that for you," Trump told the executives, according to the Associated Press. "You call my people, you call me, it doesn't make any difference. We have no formal chain of command."

Cook found himself two spots away from Trump, blocked only by well-known investor, Facebook board member and Trump supporter Peter Thiel. Other tech executives present included the likes of Alphabet's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, IBM's Ginni Rometty, and Tesla's Elon Musk.




Also in attendance were three of Trump's children -- Eric, Ivanka, and Donald Jr. -- and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence.

While most of the details of the summit are still secret, Trump promised the room's business elite that he would "make fair trade deals," and "make it a lot easier for you to trade across borders" with fewer restrictions.

A number of the people present have been openly critical of Trump and/or his political positions. Trump, in fact, attacked Apple during his election campaign, arguing that it should bring manufacturing back to the U.S., and calling on supporters to boycott the company over its refusal to write a backdoor into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.

Cook and Musk are meeting with Trump after the main summit. While Musk is a member of Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, Cook doesn't have any such attachments.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    mobiusmobius Posts: 380member
    Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

    Sun-tzu  
    edited December 2016 mdriftmeyercaliJacksamuelMacProgilly017badmonkdigitolksecSoliDave Spence
  • Reply 2 of 33
    cmauscmaus Posts: 49member
    Why does Tim Cook always make such a "grumpy grandma" face?
    k2kwelijahgjSnivelypotatoleeksoupjohnbearjeffharrisicoco3jony0
  • Reply 3 of 33
    mobiusmobius Posts: 380member
    I heard there were suggestions that they should all boycott the meeting. Better to be present to try to persuade, or at least have your voice heard minus the filter of the media and the background noise. Trump may be polar opposites to Cook on many issues, but I'd hope he'd at least listen and possibly move closer to his points of view on issues like security vs privacy. 
    edited December 2016 mwhiteration albaconstangSoliDave Spence
  • Reply 4 of 33
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    What kind of water is that, Trump's own brand? :#
  • Reply 5 of 33
    pjwilkinpjwilkin Posts: 74member
    So it's a president-elect meeting, but his children are there


    No conflicts of interest ... nope ... none  ....


    I expect the whitehouse will soon sport the Trump branding
    jax44blitz1roundaboutnowgilly017chasmanantksundaramlolliverSoliDave Spencejohnbear
  • Reply 6 of 33
    adrayvenadrayven Posts: 460member
    pjwilkin said:
    So it's a president-elect meeting, but his children are there


    No conflicts of interest ... nope ... none  ....


    I expect the whitehouse will soon sport the Trump branding
    yeah, his kids will be running his business AND the country.
    lolliverspice-boy
  • Reply 7 of 33
    MetriacanthosaurusMetriacanthosaurus Posts: 880member
    mobius said:
    I heard there were suggestions that they should all boycott the meeting. Better to be present to try to persuade, or at least have your voice heard minus the filter of the media and the background noise. Trump may be polar opposites to Cook on many issues, but I'd hope he'd at least listen and possibly move closer to his points of view on issues like security vs privacy. 
    Can you give me one example of an issue where Cook and Trump are polar opposites?

    patchythepirate[Deleted User]gtr
  • Reply 8 of 33
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    cmaus said:
    Why does Tim Cook always make such a "grumpy grandma" face?
    Wouldn't you if you had to sit near Trump? 
    roundaboutnowstanthemanrob53ration albaconstangericthehalfbeelolliverSolijohnbearurahara
  • Reply 9 of 33
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    I'm glad that Twitter wasn't there!

    I read that a transition source said that the reason twitter wasn't there and wasn't invited, was because "they aren't big enough!".

    Good! :#
  • Reply 10 of 33
    mr4jsmr4js Posts: 55member
     Tim was looking at who was  carrying iPhones. 
    edited December 2016 brakken
  • Reply 11 of 33
    dick applebaumdick applebaum Posts: 12,527member

    Apple's Tim Cook takes close seat to Donald Trump at tech summit


    Ha!

    Reminds me of the old Soviet Union -- where observers would judge the status of Communist rulers by their position related to the Soviet leader on the reviewing stand, during the annual display of military power at the May Day Parade.
    stanthemanpatchythepirateanantksundaramgtrpscooter63
  • Reply 12 of 33
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    mr4js said:
     Tim was looking at who was  carrying iPhones. 
    There's approximately 25 people sitting around that table.

    I would think that probably more than 3 out of 4 use iPhones.

    All of those people are wealthy, and I doubt that they would trust their money and security to Android.


    mwhitetycho24lolliverjeffharris
  • Reply 13 of 33
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    Everyone there looked like they would rather be anywhere else.
    johnbear
  • Reply 14 of 33
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    mobius said:
    Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

    Sun-tzu  
    no need for a war Approach here.. no need for anyone to be anyones enemy
  • Reply 15 of 33
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    cmaus said:
    Why does Tim Cook always make such a "grumpy grandma" face?
    Tim was looking at Larry Page and Eric Schmidt when that photo was taken. 
    patchythepiratebulk001ration albaconstanglolliver
  • Reply 16 of 33
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Everyone there looked like they would rather be anywhere else.
    Of course they would rather be someplace else. But on the other hand, I don't think that anybody was holding a gun to their heads, forcing anybody to be there.

    Many of them had donated lots and lots of money to a certain corrupt woman.

    Would you be happy if you lost a bunch of money and all of your efforts were in vain?
    edited December 2016 patchythepirate[Deleted User]lkrupp
  • Reply 17 of 33
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,353member
    Metriacanthosaurus said:
    mobius said:
    I heard there were suggestions that they should all boycott the meeting. Better to be present to try to persuade, or at least have your voice heard minus the filter of the media and the background noise. Trump may be polar opposites to Cook on many issues, but I'd hope he'd at least listen and possibly move closer to his points of view on issues like security vs privacy. 
    Can you give me one example of an issue where Cook and Trump are polar opposites?

    Any civil rights issue will qualify. Most of the other things he spouted during the campaign, they're not actual opposites on, since Trump has already made it clear that he didn't believe a word of it, and when in doubt, will always be in favor businesses, rather than principles - especially when so easily blackmailed as in the Carrier "deal". So I think Cook is right to be wary, but I don't think Apple has anything to fear.
    baconstangjeffharris
  • Reply 18 of 33
    delreyjonesdelreyjones Posts: 334member

    Metriacanthosaurus said:
    mobius said:
    I heard there were suggestions that they should all boycott the meeting. Better to be present to try to persuade, or at least have your voice heard minus the filter of the media and the background noise. Trump may be polar opposites to Cook on many issues, but I'd hope he'd at least listen and possibly move closer to his points of view on issues like security vs privacy. 
    Can you give me one example of an issue where Cook and Trump are polar opposites?

    Tim Cook believes in telling the truth.
    dsdslprescottai46ration albaconstangjSnivelyanantksundaramericthehalfbeelolliverSoli
  • Reply 19 of 33
    bobroobobroo Posts: 95member
    Metriacanthosaurus said:
    mobius said:
    I heard there were suggestions that they should all boycott the meeting. Better to be present to try to persuade, or at least have your voice heard minus the filter of the media and the background noise. Trump may be polar opposites to Cook on many issues, but I'd hope he'd at least listen and possibly move closer to his points of view on issues like security vs privacy. 
    Can you give me one example of an issue where Cook and Trump are polar opposites?

    How about we start with a 35% tax on corporate imports?

    Or, how about Trumps claims early in the campaign that he would end foreign tax shelters (i.e. Ireland)?

    Or, how how about draining the swamp of corporate campaign contributions?

    And on and on and on.....

    Metiacanthosaurus, have you ever read a newspaper in the past 6 months????

    Tim Cook attended this meeting to kiss Trump butt, period.
    anantksundaram
  • Reply 20 of 33
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,577member
    mobius said:
    Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

    Sun-tzu  
    And your talking about Tim I hope!  :)
    ai46
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