What Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook Should Have Discussed at Dinner

Just hours after his administration asked judges to overturn workplace protections for trans people, Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that he was having dinner with Apple CEO Tim Cook. As Chris Geidner, the Senior Advisor for Law and Policy at The Justice Collaborative pointed out on Twitter, earlier this summer Apple was one of more than 200 major companies to sign an amicus brief to end this discrimination, showing that their stance was the polar opposite of Trump's.

"Having dinner tonight with Tim Cook of Apple," Trump wrote. "They will be spending vast sums of money in the U.S. Great!"

"Watcha doin, Tim Cook," Geidner inquired.

This isn't the first time Cook has dined with Trump, in a desperate bid to keep the US president on-side as Trump wages a trade war with China. Apple relies on Chinese manufacturing to make its high profitable products iPhones and iPads.

Last March, at a meeting of the American Technology Council in the White House, Trump referred to Cook as "Tim Apple" on Twitter. Days later, he clarified saying that he didn't make a mistake but called him "Tim Apple" as a time-saving measure.

Last February the Apple CEO joined Trump's American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, and just last November, Cook promoted science, technology, engineering and math education by visiting an Idaho school with Ivanka Trump.

This week, the Trump administration announced that tariffs on Apple's MacBooks and iPhones would be delayed until December.

"We're doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers," Trump said Tuesday. "So far they've had virtually none." Due to the delayed tariffs, Apple shares went up 4% on Tuesday.

Tariffs will still go into effect for Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod as well as other items on September 1.

One can only wonder why such a prominent member of the LGBTQ+ community has aligned with the Trump administration which has frequently pushed for policies that would be discriminatory for queer and trans people. But it appears that Cook's profit is top concern over Trump's attacks towards the community, even when his company is on the record as holding an opposing view.

Apple published a press release on Thursday boasting about it's contributions to the US economy. The company says it is responsible for creating and supporting 2.4 million U.S. jobs across all 50 states and is "on pace" to directly contribution $350 billion to the U.S. economy by 2023.

Apple has also said it spends $60 billion with 9,000 American suppliers and companies which supports more than 450,000 jobs.

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