Tim Cook, whom Donald Trump once referred to as “Tim Apple”, handed the US President a large glass desk ornament with a 24 karat gold base as he bid to avoid his wrath with manufacturing investment
Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Donald Trump a large block of gold last night in a bizarre Oval Office love-in.
The iPhone boss is the latest in a string of tech CEOs to lay it on thick for the “transactional” President, hoping to keep him sweet and avoid his wrath.
The tech boss stood alongside Trump in the Oval and announced Apple would increase investment in US manufacturing by $100m over the next four years.
It comes after Donald Trump made an unfortunate arm gesture during a tour of the White House roof.
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After they spoke, Cook – whom Trump once referred to as “Tim Apple” – gave the President a desk ornament made from glass manufactured in a Kentucky factory they plan to use for iPhone parts – with a huge base made of 24 carat gold.
Although Trump appeared much more enthusiastic about a plastic miniature model of a new kind of stealth bomber he’d been given earlier in the day.
It came after Trump criticised Apple and Cook for efforts to shift iPhone production to India to avoid the tariffs his Republican administration had planned for China.
While in Qatar earlier this year, Trump said there was “a little problem” with the Cupertino, California, company and recalled a conversation with Cook in which he said he told the CEO, “I don’t want you building in India.”
India has incurred Trump’s wrath, as the president signed an order Wednesday to put an additional 25% tariff on the world ’s most populous country for its use of Russian oil. The new import taxes to be imposed in 21 days could put the combined tariffs on Indian goods at 50%.
“This is a significant step toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that iPhones sold in the United States of America also are made in America,” Trump said at the press conference. “Today’s announcement is one of the largest commitments in what has become among the greatest investment booms in our nation’s history.”
As part of the Apple announcement, the investments will be about bringing more of its supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the United States as part of an initiative called the American Manufacturing Program, but it is not a full commitment to build its popular iPhone device domestically.
“This includes new and expanded work with 10 companies across America. They produce components — semiconductor chips included — that are used in Apple products sold all over the world, and we’re grateful to the President for his support,” Cook said in a statement announcing the investment.
The new manufacturing partners include Corning, Coherent, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments and Broadcom among others.
Apple had previously said it intended to invest $500 billion domestically, a figure it will now increase to $600 billion. Trump in recent months has criticized the tech company and Cook for efforts to shift iPhone production to India to avoid the tariffs his Republican administration had planned for China.
Apple’s new pledge comes just a few weeks after it forged a $500 million deal with MP Materials, which runs the only rare earths producer in the country. That agreement will enable MP Materials to expand a factory in Texas to use recycled materials to produce magnets that make iPhones vibrate.
Speaking on a recent investors call, Cook emphasized that “there’s a load of different things done in the United States.” As examples, he cited some of the iPhone components made in the U.S. such as the device’s glass display and module for identifying people’s faces and then indicated the company was gearing to expand its productions of other components in its home country.
“We’re doing more in this country, and that’s on top of having roughly 19 billion chips coming out of the US now, and we will do more,” Cook told analysts last week, without elaborating.
News of Apple’s latest investment in the U.S. caused the company’s stock price to surge by 5% in Wednesday’s midday trading. That gain reflects investors’ relief that Cook “is extending an olive branch” to the Trump administration, said Nancy Tengler, CEO of money manager Laffer Tengler Investments, which owns Apple stock.
Despite Wednesday’s upturn, Apple’s shares are still down by 15% this year, a reversal of fortune that has also been driven by the company’s botched start in the pivotal field of artificial intelligence.