Apple’s collapse proves cosying up to Trump is no guarantee of safety
The big tech giant’s close relationship with the president has failed to protect it from trade war chaos
telegraph.co.uk
For years, Tim Cook has become something of a horse-whisperer figure in his dealings with Donald Trump.
“Tim Cook calls Donald Trump directly,” the US president said of Apple’s chief executive during his first term in 2019, speaking in the third person.
“That’s why he’s a great executive. Because he calls me and others don’t.” Other bosses, he said, “go out and hire very expensive consultants”.
Despite Trump being deeply unpopular with much of Apple’s Silicon Valley workforce, Cook – a seasoned corporate diplomat – maintained a warm relationship with him, steadily navigating the White House’s choppy trade war against China.
His lobbying was crucial to Apple securing exemptions for billions of dollars in imports of Chinese-made smartwatches and other components. Trump, meanwhile, claimed to have brought Apple manufacturing back to the US when he toured a Mac computer factory in Texas (the factory had been open since 2013, but Apple did not correct the president).
But on Wednesday, Cook’s delicate manoeuvres seemed to hit a brick wall.
Trump imposed crushing tariffs not only on China, where the majority of Apple’s iPhones are made, but also on countries such as Vietnam and India, where Cook has quietly moved parts of its production in recent years in anticipation of further Chinese tensions.
Trump’s tariffs could lead to the price of an iPhone rising by up to 43pc, according to analysts at Rosenblatt Securities. The most expensive iPhone 16 Pro Max would cost around $2,300 (£1,773), up from $1,599 today, while the cheapest would cost $1,142, up from $799.
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