WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner for a Friday night time dinner on the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago lodge, in keeping with an individual accustomed to the topic who was once no longer approved to remark publicly. Cook dinner is the most recent in a string of giant tech leaders — together with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — who’ve sought to toughen their status with the incoming president after uneven family members with Trump all the way through his first time period. Trump has mentioned he has spoken with Cook dinner concerning the corporate’s long-running tax battles with the Ecu Union. The assembly comes lower than two months after Trump mentioned he spoke to Cook dinner by means of telephone, and shortly after Apple misplaced its remaining attraction in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in again taxes to Eire. “He mentioned the Ecu Union has simply fined us $15 billion,” Trump recalled of his dialog with Cook dinner, in an October interview with podcaster Patrick Guess-David. “Then on best of that they were given fined by means of the Ecu Union any other $2 billion.” The verdict by means of the EU best courtroom was once the finale to a dispute that focused on sweetheart offers that Dublin was once providing to draw multinational companies with minimum taxes around the 27-nation bloc. The Ecu Fee in 2016 dominated that Eire granted Apple illegal support that Eire was once required to recuperate. Trump’s transition crew and Apple didn’t straight away reply to a request for remark about his dinner with Cook dinner. OpenAI CEO Altman is making plans to make a $1 million private donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, the corporate showed Friday. Amazon and Meta, the mum or dad corporate of Fb and Instagram, showed this week that they had each and every donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. All the way through his first time period, Trump criticized Amazon and railed in opposition to the political protection at The Washington Put up, which Bezos owns. In the meantime, Bezos had criticized a few of Trump’s previous rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon additionally argued in a courtroom case that Trump’s bias in opposition to the corporate harmed its possibilities of successful a $10 billion Pentagon contract. Extra just lately, Bezos has struck a extra conciliatory tone. Ultimate week, he mentioned at The New York Occasions’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was once “positive” about Trump’s 2d time period whilst additionally endorsing president-elect’s plans to chop rules. The donation from Meta got here simply weeks after Meta CEO Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. All the way through the 2024 marketing campaign, Zuckerberg didn’t endorse a candidate for president, however voiced a extra sure stance towards Trump. Previous this yr, he praised Trump’s reaction to his first assassination strive.
