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Trump Hosts Apple CEO at Mar-a-Lago as Big Tech Leaders Continue Outreach to President-Elect

Chief Executive of Apple, Tim Cook, makes a thumbs up as he accompanies Britain's King Charles III for a visit of the firm’s UK headquarters, in London, on December 12, 2024. (AFP)
Chief Executive of Apple, Tim Cook, makes a thumbs up as he accompanies Britain's King Charles III for a visit of the firm’s UK headquarters, in London, on December 12, 2024. (AFP)
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Trump Hosts Apple CEO at Mar-a-Lago as Big Tech Leaders Continue Outreach to President-Elect

Chief Executive of Apple, Tim Cook, makes a thumbs up as he accompanies Britain's King Charles III for a visit of the firm’s UK headquarters, in London, on December 12, 2024. (AFP)
Chief Executive of Apple, Tim Cook, makes a thumbs up as he accompanies Britain's King Charles III for a visit of the firm’s UK headquarters, in London, on December 12, 2024. (AFP)

Donald Trump hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook for a Friday evening dinner at the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.

Cook is the latest in a string of big tech leaders — including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos — who have sought to improve their standing with the incoming president after choppy relations with Trump during his first term.

Trump has said he has spoken with Cook about the company's long-running tax battles with the European Union.

The meeting comes less than two months after Trump said he spoke to Cook by phone, and soon after Apple lost its last appeal in a dispute with the EU over 13 billion euros ($14.34 billion) in back taxes to Ireland.

"He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion," Trump recalled of his conversation with Cook, in an October interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David. "Then on top of that they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion."

The decision by the EU top court was the finale to a dispute that centered on sweetheart deals that Dublin was offering to attract multinational businesses with minimal taxes across the 27-nation bloc. The European Commission in 2016 ruled that Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid that Ireland was required to recover.

Trump's transition team and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his dinner with Cook.

OpenAI CEO Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, the company confirmed Friday. Amazon and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, confirmed this week they had each donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.

During his first term, Trump criticized Amazon and railed against the political coverage at The Washington Post, which Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized some of Trump’s past rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract.

More recently, Bezos has struck a more conciliatory tone. Last week, he said at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was "optimistic" about Trump’s second term while also endorsing president-elect’s plans to cut regulations.

The donation from Meta came just weeks after Meta CEO Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago.

During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt.

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15 Countries Endorse from Riyadh Initiative to Promote Online Content Integrity

The United Nations Internet Governance Forum is being hosted in Saudi Arabia from December 17-19. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The United Nations Internet Governance Forum is being hosted in Saudi Arabia from December 17-19. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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15 Countries Endorse from Riyadh Initiative to Promote Online Content Integrity

The United Nations Internet Governance Forum is being hosted in Saudi Arabia from December 17-19. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The United Nations Internet Governance Forum is being hosted in Saudi Arabia from December 17-19. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Fifteen member states of the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) have endorsed a strategic multilateral initiative to promote “Online Content Integrity” during the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, hosted in Saudi Arabia from December 17-19.

The event, held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, is organized by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Digital Government Authority.

On the sidelines of the forum, the DCO, headquartered in Riyadh, announced the initiative, with 15 nations signing a joint declaration. The signatories include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Djibouti, The Gambia, Ghana, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and Rwanda.

According to the DCO Secretariat, this initiative, spearheaded and sponsored by Kuwait, was introduced during the organization’s third General Assembly, and aims to promote respect for social and cultural diversity and combat online misinformation through mediation and coordination among companies, governments, international organizations, and civil society.

The declaration included the establishment of a High-Level Ministerial Committee tasked with overseeing the implementation of the initiative. The participating nations reaffirmed their commitment to fostering an inclusive, transparent, and secure digital economy that empowers individuals to thrive.

The declaration also emphasized the importance of collective efforts to uphold national values, regulations, and codes of conduct on social media platforms. It reaffirmed the DCO’s commitment to enhancing trust in cyberspace by addressing ethical and privacy challenges associated with emerging technologies.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, DCO Secretary-General Dima Al-Yahya pointed to surveys conducted across 46 countries, which revealed that over 59% of respondents expressed concerns about distinguishing between real and fake online content. Furthermore, more than 75% of internet users reported encountering fake news in the past six months.

Al-Yahya noted: “Misinformation spreads on social media platforms at a rate up to 10 times faster than factual content,” underscoring a troubling paradox: the platforms that revolutionized communication and progress have also become channels for division, mistrust and polarization.

This impact is particularly concerning for younger generations, she warned. Teenagers reportedly spend over seven hours online daily, and at least 70% believe in four conspiracy theories after being exposed to them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation about health issues led to a 30% decline in vaccination rates in some regions, endangering millions of lives.

The forum is expected to attract over 10,000 participants from 170 countries, along with more than 1,000 international speakers. Some 300 sessions and workshops are scheduled to address global trends and policies in internet governance, share expertise and best practices, tackle emerging digital challenges, and strengthen collaboration among public and private sectors, civil society, and nonprofit organizations.