Former President Trump claims that Apple CEO Tim Cook phoned him recently to complain about the billions of dollars that the EU has fined the company.
The former president has previously referred to Cook as “Tim Apple,” and in March 2024 said Apple should unlock shooters’ iPhones because of “foreign apps.” But now he says that Cook phoned him at some point after the news broke that the EU had ruled Apple should pay Ireland $14 billion in back taxes.
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, he [Cook] called me,” Trump said on the PBD Podcast. “He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion… Then on top of that, they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion.”
The PBD Podcast episode was published on October 17, 2024, but it is not clear when it was recorded. Also, Apple wasn’t newly out the cash, as it had been sitting in escrow for years.
As first spotted by The Verge, Trump wasn’t very clear about the call. “He [Cook] said something that was interesting,” said Trump. “He said they’re using that to run their enterprise, meaning Europe is their enterprise.”
However, Trump was clearer about what he thinks of the EU’s fine. He intends to either do something about it, or prevent similar fines in the future.
“I said, ‘That’s a lot… But Tim, I got to get elected first, but I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies — that won’t, you know, be happening,'” Trump continued.
It does not appear that Trump did anything about the fine during his time as president. The funds to pay the fine were put in escrow in 2018, and there is not a statement on record from him about it from that time.
It’s previously been reported that Tim Cook had repeatedly lobbied Trump on Apple’s behalf. That was during the Trump administration, however, and during President Biden’s term, various Apple executives visited the White House some 87 times.
