Apple CEO Tim Cook attending Trump inauguration after $1 million donation
Apple CEO Tim Cook will join other big tech executives at the inauguration as they seek to avoid being targeted by incoming regulation and tariffs.

The US Capitol building. Image source: Visit the Capitol government website
Different United States presidents call for different tactics. With the incoming administration, gone are the days of sending a few hundred lobbyists to Washington.
Instead, the companies and the CEOs themselves must curry favor from the one in charge.
A new report from Bloomberg states that Apple CEO Tim Cook will join other tech executives like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos at the inauguration. It follows reporting that Cook donated $1 million of his own money to the inauguration, and so far, Apple has donated none.
Cook and others learned from the first time through with Donald Trump that in-person interactions were the only way to stay on his good side. Of course, these interactions can always backfire, but not playing the game isn't an option.
Tech regulation has hit a peak with countries around the world scrutinizing everything from Google search to Apple's App Store. It seems Apple and others hope that all of this press coverage, donations, and compliments will be enough to avoid some of the harsher possibilities during this term.
It isn't as if tech companies have never done anything like this before, but the scale of the donations is higher and the attention given the donations is clearer. Cook's donation out of his own pocket has been described as a move to keep Apple out of it, even if the shareholders are proposing otherwise.
Other companies have taken a more straightforward approach to courting the incoming administration. For example, Meta has removed fact-checking, DEI, and many of its safeguards in the name of "free speech," a klaxon of the party.
Cook has stayed in the background, congratulating Trump on social media, attending a dinner, and not involving Apple directly. It's all part of a carefully crafted playbook.
It remains to be seen if all of the work put in by Cook and company will squeeze out any results. A rumor denied by the EU suggests that there was at least some pause in levying fines over the DMA because of Trump, and more of that could come.
Read on AppleInsider

Comments
For all those opposed to Cook doing this, he's doing it for the benefit of the company, and in turn the benefit of the consumer.
Would you rather higher priced Apple products?
DEI hiring seeks to increase the share of "underrepresented" employees. That can mean fewer opportunities for those who traditionally filled those roles prior to DEI hiring. DEI proponents would argue "that is a necessary trade-off in addressing systemic inequalities." But opponents would question if that trade-off is justifiable, especially when it risks brewing a political firestorm at the workplace.
Furthermore, it's no longer "our" money once we agree to hand it over to a company in exchange for a good or service. If we don't like what a company or its leaders do, then we can vote agains them by opting not to use them in the future. This has hurt many companies.
PS: You also have the right to destroy the products you already own, which only seems to be a maneuver by the overly sensitive Far Right and so-called Conservatives, and I'd warn that doing so is incredibly foolish because the company already has your money from that exchange.
Character doesn’t matter anymore apparently
Did Trump put tariffs in place? He sure did.
Greed and casual homophobia. What an efficient post.
Right. If graft is gonna be legal and "OK" for congresscritters, then it oughta be OK for presidents too, however big a dumpster fire they are.
I'll also add -- Cook is doing what successful leaders living in the real world do to achieve their goals. I suspect that Cook recognizes that Trump cares far less about individual policy issues than he cares about fealty to the king. So by throwing some money at the little tyrant, Cook buys room for Apple to continue operating under their values. Note that Apple isn't abandoning DEI or environmental commitments. And I'll bet Apple avoids tariff damage, too.
It sucks that this is the world we live in, but Cook pretending that the world is different than it is won't change it.
Nothing personal, this is what Capitalism is all about.