Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Donald Trump met privately at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, seemingly to talk about Trump's trade war with China.
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| Donald Trump and Tim Cook met at the White House on Wednesday to discuss trade. Pictured above are Cook and Trump at the American Technology Council meeting in 2017. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |
By Alex Perry, International Business Times - Business
President Donald Trump will meet privately at the White House with a major tech figure whose company he once villainized. Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook will talk behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon, with the two likely to discuss Trump’s ongoing tariff-driven trade war with China.
Though specific details about the nature of the meeting were scarce ahead of time, Trump made it abundantly clear on Twitter that the China issue would probably come up.
Trump has been openly hostile towards Apple and Cook for a variety of reasons, even going as far as to tell people to boycott the tech giant back in 2016. However, Trump has shifted to a less confrontational stance towards Apple. He has even called Cook a “good guy” in recent public statements.
As a result, Cook was invited to Trump’s first state dinner the night before the meeting.
Trump had previously decried Apple for manufacturing products in China, where the company has been accused of poor worker treatment in factories. Cook and Trump have also come to verbal blows over immigration and LGBT rights. Cook also publicly disagreed with Trump’s stance on violence caused by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
The Chinese trade situation will, in all likelihood, dominate the conversation. Some of Trump’s proposed tariffs would increase manufacturing costs for Apple, which Cook probably wants to avoid.
However, as Mashable noted, there are a few other topics the two could discuss.
Trump might try to get Cook to produce iPhones in the U.S., which Apple will almost certainly not do. The two could also talk about Trump’s measures to slow or stop immigration into the country, as Apple employees are among many who would be hurt by such policies.
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