Tim Cook pushed back on the perceived closeness he seems to have with President Donald Trump since his return to office last year.
During a Tuesday appearance on “Good Morning America” ahead of Apple’s 50th Anniversary celebration, the CEO was asked by host Michael Strahan about his closeness to Trump. Cook explained that he had no interest in politics and that he was “straight down the middle” on all that.
“What I do is I interact on policy, not politics. I’m not a political person on either side. I’m not political,” Cook 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.”
Despite that, the relationship Cook has kept with Trump has largely paid dividends for the CEO. When the president announced tariffs on Indian imports last year, smartphones were not a part of that sweeping effect. This saved Apple millions. Cook also spoke highly of Trump at the tech CEO dinner hosted at the White House back in September.
“I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States and have some key manufacturing, advanced manufacturing here,” Cook said. “I think that says a lot about your focus and your leadership and your focus on innovation.”
Despite that, Trump has not been afraid to call out Cook – with whom he claims a friendship and someone he’s been “very good” to – when the president thinks Apple is stepping out of line. He revealed he had to have a talking-to with Cook after Apple revealed they were going to produce iPhones in India rather than the U.S.
“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” President Trump said. “I said to him: ‘Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion. But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India. You can build in India if you want to take care of India.’”
He added: “I said to Tim, I said, ‘Tim, look, we’ve treated you really good. We put up with all the plants that you built in China for years. Now you got to build us. We’re not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves. They’re doing very well. We want you to build here.’”
