WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) 鈥� hosted for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Cook is the latest in a string of big tech leaders 鈥� including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos 鈥� who have sought to improve their standing with the incoming president after choppy relations with Trump during his first term.
Trump has said he has spoken with Cook about the company's
The meeting comes less than two months after Trump said he spoke to Cook by phone, and soon after Apple lost its last appeal in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in back taxes to Ireland.
鈥淗e said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion," Trump recalled of his conversation with Cook, in an October interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David. "Then on top of that they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion."
The decision by the EU top court was the finale to a dispute that centered on sweetheart deals that Dublin was offering to attract multinational businesses with minimal taxes across the 27-nation bloc. The European Commission in 2016 ruled that Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid that Ireland was required to recover.
Trump's transition team and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his dinner with Cook.
is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump鈥檚 inauguration fund, the company confirmed Friday. Amazon and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, confirmed this week they had each donated $1 million to Trump鈥檚 inaugural fund.
During his first term, Trump criticized Amazon and railed against the political coverage at The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized some of Trump鈥檚 past rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump鈥檚 bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract.
More recently, Bezos has struck a more conciliatory tone. Last week, he said at The New York Times鈥� DealBook Summit in New York that he was 鈥渙ptimistic鈥� about Trump鈥檚 second term while also endorsing president-elect鈥檚 plans to cut regulations.
The donation from Meta came just weeks after privately at Mar-a-Lago.
During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump鈥檚 response to his first assassination attempt.
Zeke Miller And Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press
