Written by 
Tim Cook and Donald Trump in a meeting at the White House in 2018 — image credit: Apple
Their personal relationship has not always helped “Tim Apple”, but Tim Cook has been more successful in working with Trump than most.
President Trump has previously backed the FBI against Apple over what he called foreign apps, and famously forgot Cook’s name, but overall Apple appears to have been able to benefit under a Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal says that this is down to a particular technique Cook uses, alongside lobbying Trump personally.
“That’s why he’s a great executive, because he calls me and others don’t,” Trump said in 2019.
Cook both calls Trump and has meals with him. Reportedly, key to those communications is that Cook makes them about one single point, one single issue, each time.
For example, a 2017 exchange saw Cook persuade Trump to scale down his plans for tariffs, after telling him how this would increase iPhone prices and help Samsung. Cook will presumably have to do this again — the incoming administration says it will increase tariffs, even though the cost is paid by the importers and passed to US consumers.
Ahead of the new administration, Cook recommenced the relationship by congratulating Trump, as practically all business leaders and foreign governments did. However, Cook may also have kept the relationship going during the Biden administration, as Trump has claimed that the two talked about the EU laws.
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, he [Cook] called me,” Trump said on the PBD Podcast on October 17, 2024. “He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion… Then on top of that, they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion.”
“Tim… I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies — that won’t, you know, be happening,'” he says he continued.
As well as the personal lobbying through calls and meals, Cook has also publicly worked with Trump. In 2019, he gave the President the first 2019 Mac Pro to be made in Austin, Texas, following a tour of the plant.