Cook was quick to congratulate Donald Trump after he stamped his return ticket to the Oval Office and on Friday night the president-elect hosted Cook for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Cook isn’t the only tech leader to go out of their way to get on Trump’s good side. Recently Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Jeff Bezos’ Amazon donated $1 million each to be used to help cover the cost of Trump’s second inauguration. Open AI’s Sam Altman left a personal $1 million donation. What many tech executives have learned about Trump is that when it comes time to get on Trump’s good side, flattery and money often work.
Tim Cook and President Donald Trump at a tech summit held during Trump’s first term. | Imager credit-Unknown
During Trump’s first term, he criticized Bezos because of the way the president was covered in The Washington Post, owned by Bezos. While Zuckerberg didn’t endorse any candidate for president this year, he did praise Trump for how he reacted to the first assassination attempt against him.
Massaging Trump’s ego is always good for a company’s business and no one does this better than Tim Cook. How far Friday’s dinner goes is something we might not find out for some time.
