WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner for a Friday night time dinner on the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago hotel, consistent with an individual aware of the topic who was once now not licensed to remark publicly.Prepare 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 give a boost to their status with the incoming president after uneven family members with Trump all the way through his first time period.Trump has stated he has spoken with Prepare dinner in regards to the corporate’s long-running tax battles with the Ecu Union. The assembly comes not up to two months after Trump stated he spoke to Prepare dinner by way of telephone, and shortly after Apple misplaced its final enchantment in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in again taxes to Eire.“He stated the Ecu Union has simply fined us $15 billion,” Trump recalled of his dialog with Prepare dinner, in an October interview with podcaster Patrick Guess-David. “Then on best of that they were given fined by way of the Ecu Union any other $2 billion.”The verdict by way of the EU best courtroom was once the finale to a dispute that targeted 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 help that Eire was once required to recuperate.
Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner speaks all the way through a statement of recent merchandise at the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., Monday, June 10, 2024. (AP Picture/Jeff Chiu)Trump’s transition crew and Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about his dinner with Prepare dinner.OpenAI CEO Altman is making plans to make a $1 million non-public 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 they’d every donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.Throughout his first time period, Trump criticized Amazon and railed in opposition to the political protection at The Washington Submit, 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 profitable a $10 billion Pentagon contract.We Want Your SupportOther information shops have retreated in the back of paywalls. At HuffPost, we consider journalism will have to be loose for everybody.Would you lend a hand us supply crucial data to our readers all the way through this important time? We will’t do it with out you.Can not come up with the money for to give a contribution? Make stronger HuffPost by way of making a loose account and log in when you learn.You will have supported HuffPost ahead of, and we will be fair — lets use your lend a hand once more. We view our undertaking to offer loose, truthful information as seriously necessary on this a very powerful second, and we will’t do it with out you.Whether or not you give as soon as or many extra instances, we admire your contribution to maintaining our journalism loose for all.You will have supported HuffPost ahead of, and we will be fair — lets use your lend a hand once more. We view our undertaking to offer loose, truthful information as seriously necessary on this a very powerful second, and we will’t do it with out you.Whether or not you give only one extra time or enroll once more to give a contribution ceaselessly, we admire you taking part in an element in maintaining our journalism loose for all.Make stronger HuffPostAlready contributed? Log in to cover those messages.Extra just lately, Bezos has struck a extra conciliatory tone. Closing week, he stated at The New York Occasions’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was once “constructive” about Trump’s 2nd 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.Throughout the 2024 marketing campaign, Zuckerberg didn’t endorse a candidate for president, however voiced a extra certain stance towards Trump. Previous this yr, he praised Trump’s reaction to his first assassination strive.
