thedba

igorsky said:

Tim Cook is just waiting out a lame duck President, as is pretty much every other business leader who is currently paying this man lip service.

mikethemartian said:

Maybe Tim can have Trump design the next iPhone Pro.

mrstep said:

9secondkox2 said:

Seems like a smart man’s genuine appreciation of another smart man. 

Good to see. 

Cook is they’re to look ahead and can see the potential blessing of current moves down the road  

We had 50 years of US leadership selling out our manufacturing base to a Communist regime and it seems most people are only angry at President Trump for trying to change that course.  The CCP is literally fascist. 🤷‍♂️ 

9secondkox2 said:

Seems like a smart man’s genuine appreciation of another smart man. 

Good to see. 

Cook is they’re to look ahead and can see the potential blessing of current moves down the road  

avon b7 said:

9secondkox2 said:

avon b7 said:

9secondkox2 said:

As I said a long time ago, intelligent people are in charge snd apple will be ok. The president will have a way to navigate Apple through some difficult decidd add jobs. And it has come to pass. 

Cook was wise to open the door of discussion dnd thr president has been wise in response. 

I know it’s popular in this particular online space to detract from the president no matter what he does, but the fact is tarriffs are necessary -yet it’s sldd add o necessary to protect Americans and American companies. The idea is to put the pressure on other countries, particularly China - and not on American companies. 

It’s not changing mindset. It’s continuing forward motion, msnuevering as needed. That’s only good stuff snd Apple is the better for it. As this year marks time for my iPhone upgrade and early next is my next Mac purchase, I am a pretty happy potential customer right about now. 

If intelligent people were involved, surely none of this would have been necessary. 

He imposed tariffs. There were little to no exceptions. He let that situation sit while markets collapsed everywhere. He doubled down on there being no change of thought and barely hours after saying there would be no backing down, he did just that, suspending 'reciprocal' tariffs for 90 days. 

Then, late Friday exemptions were put in place.

By late Sunday we were being told there were no real exemptions (according to Lutnick) but a sort of pause within a pause and everyone was 'on the hook' (according to Trump) and that new tariffs were being devised to replace the original ones but they simply weren't ready and we know no one will even dare explain them (because they are being cooked up as we speak and don't exist). 

Even within the administration mixed messaging is emerging and now we are to believe Trump is 'flexible'?

It is nice to hear about walls and going over or below them, or even around them but the US decided to crash straight into them. 

There is no intelligence on show here. It's the complete opposite. Chaos and reaction to the problems chaos brings. 

Intelligence would never have seen this mess get to this point. 

Intelligence would not have seen Trump congratulating his pals for stock market gains hours before he announced another walk back (opening him up to valid insider trading accusations). 


Tim Cook and every CEO and small business owner in the US would know what trade policy is and be acting on it. That isn't happening because there is NO stable trade policy.

Everyone is running blind. 

Incorrect. It’s because of intelligent and good people that we are finally addressing long-standing abuses and doing so in a way that is benefitting Americans as much as possible and sparing collateral damage where possible. It’s not changing your mind when you planned to do something already. Trump hinted at this previously and we saw precedent in his first term. And that El Salvador president sure seemed to respect him tremendously. 

The right thing to do isn’t to continue to be ripped off. Nor is it to apply tarriffs without concern for American companies. 

People elected the president in a number of issues. This is one. The previous admin let American get bullied around. We saw a microcosm of that with Apple and the EU. That era is over. All of a sudden we hear the eu saying they’re willing to deal. We hear them second guessing their ridiculously exorbitant fees charged against Apple for stuff they make up as they go along. America is strong again. And as a result, so are Americans and our companies. This is good. A lot of mental acrobatics to try to spin it any other way. 

Are you saying this is the intelligent way to address these issues? That there were no, far, far less damaging options available to reach the same goals?

If you are then that is utterly absurd. 

The damage has already been done. None of it was necessary. 

It was not intelligent to send someone like JD Vance to the Munich Security Conference to proclaim there was a 'new sheriff in town'. That was plain stupid, disrespectful and embarrassing. It wasn't intelligent to belittle world leaders by saying they were queueing up to kiss his ass. It wasn't intelligent to speak of the Chinese as peasants (in any context). It wasn't intelligent to speak about the 'Governor' of Canada or the '51st state'. It wasn't intelligent to speak about using force to take Greenland. It wasn't intelligent to begin 'peace' talks on Ukraine without Ukraine at the talks. It wasn't intelligent to speak about not letting the people of Gaza back. Or taking control of the Panama Canal. 

All of the above should have been approached in an entirely different manner because he has achieved nothing to date and created I'll-will everywhere. Not intelligent when you never know when you might need the collaboration of someone else. 

Tariffs are not new. Tariffs are not a problem. 

The Trump Tariffs are a problem because they immediately became counterproductive and led to pushback and counter-tariffs from the EU (suspended in good faith) and China (pushing back hard).

Not to mention that two weeks after Liberation Day, nothing has been 'liberated'. Ironic. 

Let's also skip over the fact that so much of what he said he would do would happen on Day 1.

So the CEOs of all the top US companies now have literally no idea of what's going to happen next apart from they are all 'on the hook'.

If Trump had done the intelligent thing he would have communicated his plans (those that impacted top US corporations) to make things clear. 

Did he do that, in spite of talking to Tim Cook for example? Because if he did do that, Tim Cook wouldn't have airlifted millions of iPhones from India. Right? Or is it Tim heard him out and still thought 'oh, shit!'.

There is no intelligence on show here and the evidence is piling up daily.