Tim Cook Dines With President Trump & Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago

There have been a number of unlikely faces at Mar-a-Lago lately…

First, Mark Zuckerberg dined with President Trump shortly before donating $1M to his Inauguration fund…

And now, Apple CEO Tim Cook had dinner with both President Trump at his Florida estate.

Elon Musk also joined the dinner (Apple/Tesla collab incoming?)

Here are the details about what went down during the dinner:

🚨🇺🇸TRUMP HOSTS APPLE CEO TIM COOK AT MAR-A-LAGO

Trump dined with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elon tonight at Mar-a-Lago, adding another tech titan to his growing guest list.

Cook’s dinner follows meetings with Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman—each contributing $1M to… pic.twitter.com/xcdJNsMv5p

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 14, 2024

A photo of Tim Cook spotted at Mar-a-Lago near Elon is circulating online:

Last night at Mar-a-Lago: Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/GaM6g6xxCd

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 14, 2024

The New York Times originally broke the news:

Tim Cook held a meeting on Friday with Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, marking the first time that Apple’s chief executive has met with the president-elect since voters elected him to a second term last month.

Mr. Cook and Mr. Trump later dined on the patio at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting. The two men had a warm relationship during Mr. Trump’s first term — much warmer than Mr. Trump’s with other tech executives, like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg or Google’s Sundar Pichai, both of whom recently had their own meals with Mr. Trump.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The meeting offers a chance for Mr. Cook to seek Mr. Trump’s support on several issues that could challenge Apple’s business in the coming years, including pressure on the App Store from European regulators and the potential that new tariffs could put the company’s iPhone business at risk.

Mr. Trump has been receptive to those appeals in the past. During a podcast interview in October, Mr. Trump said he listened sympathetically as Mr. Cook complained to him on a call last month about European regulators who have fined Apple $2 billion for using the App Store to thwart competition.

“I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies,” Mr. Trump recalled telling Mr. Cook. “That won’t be happening.”

AP also reported:

Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.

Cook is the latest in a string of big tech leaders — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — who have sought to improve their standing with the incoming president after choppy relations with Trump during his first term.

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Trump has said he has spoken with Cook about the company’s long-running tax battles with the European Union.

The meeting comes less than two months after Trump said he spoke to Cook by phone, and soon after Apple lost its last appeal in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in back taxes to Ireland.

“He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion,” Trump recalled of his conversation with Cook, in an October interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David. “Then on top of that they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion.”

The decision by the EU top court was the finale to a dispute that centered on sweetheart deals that Dublin was offering to attract multinational businesses with minimal taxes across the 27-nation bloc. The European Commission in 2016 ruled that Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid that Ireland was required to recover.

Is the big tech tide turning in President Trump’s favor?

Or is everyone just trying to grift to save face — and possibly prosecution?

What are your thoughts on Silicon Valley’s sudden shift to the MAGA side?