US President-elect Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday evening dinner at the his Mar-a-Lago resort, person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly said as reported by Associated Press. This comes as business leaders have attempted to establish a positive rapport with Trump since his election win in November.
Cook is the latest in a series of prominent tech leaders—such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos—who have worked to strengthen their relationship with the incoming president following strained ties with Trump during his first term.
As per reports, Meta Platforms and Amazon, both contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund while Bank of America too have have intended to donate, however, their exact amount is not yet known.
Trump, who is scheduled to assume office in January, mentioned in October that he had received a call from Cook regarding concerns about the financial penalties imposed by the European Union on Apple. According to a AP report, Apple lost its final appeal in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in back taxes owed to Ireland.
