What did Tim Cook and Trump talk about?

By

tariffs
Apple CEO Tim Cook has urged President Donald Trump to avoid tariffs with China.
Photos: White House/Apple

Apple’s CEO and the President of the United States took a meeting today in the Oval Office. Trade was at the top of the agenda for Tim Cook and Trump, as the President and China’s leaders increasingly put tariffs on each other’s products.

Cook was already in Washington to attend a White House formal dinner last night to honor the French President.

Before the two men spoke, Pres. Trump tweeted the agenda: “Looking forward to my meeting with Tim Cook of Apple. We will be talking about many things, including how the U.S. has been treated unfairly for many years, by many countries, on trade.”

The tweet seems to imply that Cook concurs with that statement, but he does not. And trade is just one of many areas where the two are at odds.

Cook and Trump disagree on almost everything

Earlier this month, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it will slap 25 percent tariffs on 1,300 products coming from China related to technology, transport, and medical products. iPhone components were not included on the list, however.

Nevertheless, Tim Cook probably used part of today’s meeting to express his disapproval of the tariffs. Apple is a member of The Information Technology Industry Council, which opposes Trump’s China policy. Other members of the lobbying group include Amazon, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and many more.

And this is hardly the only topic where Cook and Trump don’t see eye to eye. For example, Apple believes strongly in protecting the environment, while the POTUS has publicly expressed skepticism about global warming dozens of times, and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement last year.

Cook also opposes the President’s decision to end the DACA program protecting the children and former children of immigrants.

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