President Donald Trump sang Tim Cook’s praises on Tuesday a day after Apple revealed its CEO will be transitioning to an executive chairman of the board role on Sept. 1. He is set to be replaced by John Ternus.
“I have always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and likewise, Steve Jobs, but if Steve was not taken from the Planet Earth so young, and ran the company instead of Tim, the company would have done well, but nowhere near as well as it has under Tim,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “For me it began with a phone call from Tim at the beginning of my First Term. He had a fairly large problem that only I, as President, could fix. Most people would have paid millions of dollars to a consultant, who I probably would not have known, but who would say that he knew me well. The fees would be paid but the job would not have gotten done. When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that? I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass.’”
“Anyway, he explained his problem, a tough one it was, I felt he was right and got it taken care of, quickly and effectively. That was the beginning of a long and very nice relationship. During my five years as President, Tim would call me, but never too much, and I would help him where I could,” he continued. “Years latter, after 3 or 4 BIG HELPS, I started to say to people, anyone who would listen, that this guy is an amazing manager and leader. He makes these calls to me, I help him out (but not always, because he will, on occasion, be too aggressive in his ask!), and he gets the job done, QUICKLY, without a dime being given to those very expensive (millions of dollars!) consultants around town who sometimes get it done, and sometimes don’t.”
“Anyway, Tim Cook had an AMAZING career, almost incomparable, and will go on and continue to do great work for Apple, and whatever else he chooses to work on,” Trump concluded. “Quite simply, Tim Cook is an incredible guy!!!”
Last month, Cook explained his working relationship with President Trump on “Good Morning America,” in honor of Apple’s 50th anniversary.
“What I do is I interact on policy, not politics. I’m not a political person on either side. I’m not political,” he said. “And so I’m kind of straight down the middle. And I focus on policy, so I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.”
Cook was also on-hand at Trump’s 2025 inauguration, amongst other tech execs.
