Trump praises Tim Cook, says Apple wouldn’t be as big under Steve Jobs

In a new interview, Trump revealed the two spoke on the phone earlier this week and said he credits Cook with the tech giant’s success.

“I believe that if Tim Cook didn’t run Apple, if Steve Jobs did, it wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is now,” Trump said, referencing the Apple founder and former CEO who died in 2011 from cancer. “I think Tim Cook’s done an amazing job. And I’m not knocking Steve Jobs.” 

Trump made the comments during a podcast interview with Patrick Bet-David released on Thursday. Bet-David asked Trump about his relationship with Cook, after Trump revealed the two had spoken just “two hours” prior to recording. 

“Then two hours ago, three hours ago, he called me,” Trump said during his interview. “He said, ‘I’d like to talk to you about something.’ ‘What?’ He said, ‘The European Union has just fined us $15 billion.’ That’s a lot.”

In September a top EU court found that Apple owed Ireland back taxes worth €13 billion, or roughly $14.4 billion. Earlier this year, in March, the EU hit Apple with a $2 billion antitrust fine for allegedly throttling rivals to its streaming service Apple Music in its iOS App Store. 

Trump marveled at the size of the fines the EU levied against Apple, saying they were “a lot.” 

“I even said about Apple, can you pay that? I mean, do you have that kind—that’s a lot of money,” Trump said.

Trump then drew parallels with his own legal troubles in the U.S., where he was convicted of 34 felony counts in one criminal case, while still awaiting trial in three others. 

“I know the feeling because I get fined, too, and fake cases. But I don’t know if his case is fake yet, but it’s a lot,” Trump said. 

Trump went on to detail his relationship with Cook, which he said had been productive. In 2019, when Trump was in the White House, he had implemented a series of tariffs on certain imports from China. Among the products subject to those tariffs were certain parts needed to make Apple products, which Cook had sought a waiver to avoid. Cook then met with Trump to press his case in person. The former president granted Cook the waiver upon the condition that Apple would invest in U.S. manufacturing for its Mac Pro. In reality, Apple already made the computers in Texas. 

Cook would later gift Trump a Mac Pro made at the Texas manufacturing facility. 

Regarding the discussions with Cook, Trump said he appreciated the Apple CEO’s personal involvement in the matter. 

“Most companies send in lobbyists that get paid millions and millions of dollars to talk for them,” Trump said. “And they probably say, ‘We know Trump. We can talk.’ But they don’t. For the most part, they don’t. Tim Cook called me up directly, and he did it himself. [He] didn’t have to pay 10 cents. I gave him 100% of what he wanted because he was right.”

Cook’s argument regarding the 2019 tariffs, according to Trump, was that they would make it too difficult for Apple to compete with Samsung because it didn’t have to import components from China. 

Over the years Trump has always spoken fondly of Cook. “Tim Cook calls Donald Trump directly,” Trump said in August 2019. “That’s why he’s a great executive, because he calls me, and others don’t.” 

During the interview with Bet-David, Trump recounted how excited he was to receive a call from Cook back in 2019. “He calls. ‘Could I see you, sir?’ He’s the head of Apple. And I was born in Queens, and I said, ‘Oh, the head of Apple wants to see me. Let’s go.’ Even though I’m president I was born in Queens and the head of Apple’s calling.”

Trump’s fondness for tariffs have featured heavily on the campaign trail during his third bid for the White House. They are now part of a major policy proposal in which Trump aims to level blanket tariffs of 20% on all imported products and 60% to 100% tariffs on goods from China. Economists say the policy would be broadly inflationary and that it would raise costs for consumers. 

When reached for comment about whether a future Trump administration would intervene with the EU on behalf of Apple, Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes cited support from “industry leaders like Elon Musk and David Sacks” as evidence of the strength of his economic policies. “President Trump’s agenda includes economic, energy, and regulatory policies that will allow the U.S. to reclaim its global dominance of innovation and technology,” Hughes said in a statement. 

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.