Apple's biggest lobbying move yet: Tim Cook + President Trump
Designed in Cupertino. ~~Assembled in China~~... Assembled in Austin. Apple makes almost all its devices in China — except fancy priced-like-a-car Mac Pro computers. Those come out of a Texas factory owned by a company called Flex. And Apple CEO Tim Cook just hosted President Trump there (+ Ivanka + Treasury Secretary Mnuchin) to show off future Apple expansion plans in the USA.
Apple got shined... That presidential factory visit didn't boost Apple's stock (although it's already incredibly close to a record high). But the mi casa e su casa tour earned Tim Cook these 2 surprise quotes from the President:
- "When you build in the United States you don’t have to worry about tariffs:" Apple's Chinese-made goods aren't exempted from tariffs (yet), but any exemption would save some profits.
- "I asked Tim Cook to see if he could get Apple involved in building 5G in the U.S." Apple isn't building out the powerful wireless network your future life runs on — but this captures their positive relationship with the President.
Arguably the best lobbyist in America... is Tim Cook. It may not be fair, but policy comes down to relationships. Right now, it's transactional relationships. Apple's CEO charmed up one with the President that most Big Tech won't:
- What other tech execs do: Amazon's Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and pushes back on Trump. Facebook's Zuck hates putting on suits and isn't getting any love from anyone in Washington.
- What Tim does: He attends White House dinners, serves on tech-ish advisory councils, and then joins more dinners.
- What the President gets: This photo opp and this stat that Apple will add $350B to the economy over 5 years. And when he incorrectly claims responsibility for opening that Texas factory, Tim doesn't mention it's actually 6 years old.