Apple CEO Tim Cook donates $1M to Trump's inauguration fund

[Unladen Swallow]

Source: 9 to 5 Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined a chorus of Big Tech executives making sizeable donations to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. The news comes via a scoop from Axios as we approach Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Cook will “personally” make a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural committee, the report says. Last month, Cook visited Mar-a-Lago in Florida for a meeting with Trump. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was also spotted at the dinner table with Trump and Cook.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump at the end of November. Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with Trump in December. Trump has also met with Jeff Bezos and many other high-profile executives in the Big Tech industry and beyond.

The likes of Meta, Amazon, and Uber have donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. OpenAI’s Sam Altman also made a $1 million donation. Outside of Silicon Valley, companies including Ford, Toyota, GM, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Coinbase, and more have donated millions to the Trump inauguration fund.

....



Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/03/apple-ceo-tim-cook-donates-1m-to-trumps-inauguration-fund/

---

It looks like tech is kissing the ring.

[tanyev]

1. Is he hoping Donny will finally learn his name?

[PSPS]

2. Tech bought the ring. trump thinks he was born with it. This is all really disgusting.

I suppose it's just a matter of time before trump's always-the-same suit ensemble (like Stan Smith's) will be sporting epaulettes.

[brush]

3. God! All these tech bros are cueing up to toe the trump line. And I've been a MAC person all these years...

as Steve Jobs always seemed apart from and anti-establishment against Microsoft/Bill Gates.

I don't approve and I don't think Steve Jobs would toe that line.

[mdbl]

12. I too was a Mac person since the first release

And as much as I credit Steve Jobs, like the rest of the industry titans he became sucked into the money side to where I can't trust he would be doing anything different today than Tim Apple.

[brush]

14. We'll never know. IMO Cook didn't have to join the other obvious sychophants like Bezos and Zuckerberg.

They all have way more money than fake billionaire trump even. They wouldn't starve if their companies didn't get preferential treatment. I'm sure they've all got off-shore accounts and acreage somewhere.

Gutless bastards.

[spooky3]

21. At least Cook didn't find some way to use the company's funds rather than his own.

But not only are the tech bros gutless; some appear to like what TSF stands for.

[appalachiablue]

4. BROLIGARCHS

[lanlady]

5. A mafia-style shakedown is what it is. Protection money

This is like a scene out of The Sopranos. Il Capo demands his cut 'cuz it'd be a shame if something were to happen to your nice business, knowwud I mean?

Putin does this too, by the way - shakes down the oligarchs when he wants to buy himself yet another yacht or another compound. Trump and Pootie, two birds of a feather.

It's disgusting. I don't care about Zuck or Gates but it pains me to see Tim Cooke bend the knee because I'm an Apple fan girl.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. I am an apple fan guy

And I agree. there are a number of things Cooke has done that would have Jobs rolling over in his grave.....

[LudwigPastorius]

27. Unquestionably, a shake down

I'm sure Trump has made it clear that whoever doesn't pony up will face the fury of his soon-to-be fully weaponized Justice Department.

[Auggie]

6. They're paying the bribe ...

actually an investment to ensure their shareholders get solid returns and retain their CEOs. All of them.

[travelingthrulife]

36. And they will pay more, and more, and more...

Have they not seen mob movies before?

[Auggie]

39. Yes. Add in the money paid to lobbyists and local politicians too.

[IcyPeas]

7. Who HASN'T kissed the ring yet?

[Joinfortmill]

8. Because of course he does.

[usonian]

9. Unedited photo of the beggar begging.

[Monsieur_Grumpe]

10. Over priced and over hyped

In other words, Apple is a con job just like tRump.

[Skittles]

13. I am so proud to have never bought an Apple product

FUCK that noise; yes INDEED

[brush]

15. What, you bought Windows? As if Bill Gates hasn't kissed the ring already.

[Intractable]

19. Bill Gates has not been the CEO of Microsoft for many years.

[brush]

20. So. Did you buy Windows or not? Which he had a huge part in creating. And where his fortune came from.

If so, you're can not play holier than thou to Apple users.

[Intractable]

28. Holier than thou? Excuse me. I was just correcting your misinformation.

Not only did I buy Windows and Office, I bought multi-user licenses a decade ago, which are still in use today.

I can do more with programs running under Windows than most Apple users can conceive. But, that's because of me, not Microsoft.

[brush]

49. Pls, ;let's not re-convene the Apple v Windows war. The thread is about...

many of the tech bros like Zuckerberg and Bezos toeing the line to fork over big bucks for trump's inauguration (which will probably be ripped off as it was the last time. It was Melania from his first inaugural fund).

But it's an added bonus to hear how much you can do with Windows creations.

[Intractable]

55. "What, you bought Windows? " -- brush

You lost the thread a while ago.

You seem fairly proud to be a mac user.

[brush]

60. The war has been over long ago. The two systems both work well.

I've worked on both during my career.

[BaronChocula]

11. Hey Siri,

put some salmonella in Tim's sushi.

[Hotler]

16. Another fascist. They're everywhere. Or, did they receive a phone call suggesting it might be less costly

to make a inauguration donation as to not.

[usonian]

17. To all the Apple haters.

Cook is an ass-kisser and NOT APPLE.

Apple completely changed when Steve Jobs died. Cook is not a visionary. He keeps the assembly line moving.



And he doesn't ruffle feathers. Jobs regularly rented a car so he could park in a verboten spot and not get dinged.

Watch them all KISS THE RING.



And get a very tiny notepad out for those who don't.



Apple still makes superior hardware. All the crappy dells and HP's have long exceeded their lives here even as door stops. The 2010 MacBookAir still runs fine and for things like creative writing, is as good as anything around. And the ipad 1 (that's ONE) still does what I bought it for. It displays musical scores and books to read.

I had a boss who used to say "Those macs are so STUPID, and SO DAMN EXPENSIVE"
So, he paid a computer engineer one week's pay to get some office suite to run on his PC without major crashes.

I. have run Libre Office formerly Open Office, for ages, for free and without a hiccup.

[Unladen Swallow]

42. I'm still using Dell, HP, and IBM laptop hardware

from the mid 2000s. My oldest current Thinkpad was acquired in 2003, and it was two years old at that time. The beauty of these systems is they're 100% user serviceable, when necessary, and parts are cheap and freely available. I have never bought "new" anything... Every tech device I use is several to many years old by the time it gets to me.

[C0RI0LANUS]

22. Maybe Apple CEO Tim Cook is buying an ambassadorship.

Gordon Sondland bought an ambassadorship to the EU by donating $1m to Trumpf's first inaugural ball.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Sondland

[lapfog_1]

51. That is one ugly looking penis.

[C0RI0LANUS]

58. I checked in my pants, nope, not mine!

[SunSeeker]

23. How much fucking money is needed to put on an inauguration?

Trump’s second-inauguration haul is going to shatter the previous $107m record he set in 2017, as pledged contributions have already exceeded a $150m fundraising goal as of Dec. 18. https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-vance-inaugural-committee-track-raise-record-amount/story?id=116918692

By comparison, Barack Obama’s inauguration raised $53m in 2009 and $42m in 2013, and Joe Biden’s raised $63m in 2021.

I imagine 99% of it is going into Trump's pockets, judging by how cheap Trump's first inauguration looked. Sickening.

[nilram]

31. Based on the last one, reduce seating by 2/3

Those bleachers aren't cheap to put up and take down---and no one showed up anyway.

[not fooled]

35. Headlines should read simply "donated to Trump"

hence skipping any reference to the inauguration. This one will be even more of a scam than inauguration #1. Most of these $1 million "gifts" are just going straight into red don's pocket. Who's gonna investigate?

[travelingthrulife]

37. Last time he just put on a cheap show and pocketed the rest.

[Unladen Swallow]

43. We are living out The Hunger Games

so no amount of pomp and circumstance is too much for the rich elite who are obviously better than you and me....

[ZonkerHarris]

24. Like cops, all billionaires are BAD. ALL. None are your friend or on your side.

[live love laugh]

29. Taylor Swift is "bad"?

[ZonkerHarris]

40. You think she's getting rich for you? To help somehow?

[live love laugh]

54. That does not answer the question.

[Unladen Swallow]

45. If we hate people with money

then we have to hate her too.

[live love laugh]

53. Who is WE?

[Unladen Swallow]

57. i guess i mean the "royal we,"

that is, everyone who speaks ill of the billionaire class on this site. is it the money that makes them evil? or are they just evil? can a billionaire be a good person? "no one needs that much money." does taylor?

[Unladen Swallow]

44. There was a story posted here last week

about a cop who jumped in a frozen lake to rescue a woman whose car had entered said lake. I assume he is a bad cop, just like all the rest, right?

[johnnyfins]

25. 1 million is cheap when you're looking

down the barrel of the US Government with endless resources to make your life miserable.

[CentralMass]

26. Now you funny too Tom.

[C0RI0LANUS]

30. Follow the money. Apple is facing a lawsuit in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over blood minerals.

DRC Case Against Apple Brings New Hope in Conflict Minerals Crisis


Miners being exploited by armed gangs. (Photo: Mark Craemer)

The war over so-called "conflict minerals" is more than two decades old, but the fight to prevent their exploitation by global tech companies is much newer.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), various armed groups – including both Congolese army and rival armed rebel groups, among them the M23 – occupy mines and trading routes, forcing miners to work for free.

Minerals from these mines, including tungsten, tin and tantalum (often referred to as the 3Ts), have been illegally smuggled through Rwanda for several years, and eventually exported to tech companies such as Apple, Tesla, and Samsung.

But after the DRC filed criminal charges against Apple over the use of conflict minerals, there is renewed hope that this illegal mining could be brought to an end.

A criminal complaint was filed earlier in December against Apple's subsidiaries in France and Belgium, where the Congolese government alleges Apple uses conflict minerals laundered through international supply chains – which the American tech giant denies.



Sources:

https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20250103-drc-case-against-apple-brings-new-hope-in-conflict-minerals-crisis

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/reports/tackling-conflict-minerals/

[Unladen Swallow]

47. So the dirty little secret

is that we are all posting from devices that cost someone their life.

[C0RI0LANUS]

50. In a nutshell, yes. I wonder about the provenance of the components in my PC. Musk and Cook know.

[Unladen Swallow]

56. seems like we all have a cross to bear

and shouldn't be so fast to cast stones, maybe

[C0RI0LANUS]

59. Well said. "But do not make the perfect the enemy of the good." I end up at Walmart 2 or 3x year. Ugh.

[calimary]

32. Just trying to stay on his good side.

Boy, it’s easy to figure out who the chickens are.

[calimary]

33. Who owns ya, baby?

[mahina]

34. Ann Telnaes said it best.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219871920

[Bengus81]

38. A million$$ to save him and Apple even more BILLIONS $$ in taxes

Probably seems like a very,very cheap investment to Cook. The rest of us get nothing.......

[Polybius]

41. This doesn't make sense

Tim Cook is far from MAGA. He supports liberal causes and he's gay.

[Unladen Swallow]

48. He's paying the pay-to-play fee

to the new overlord....

[tonekat]

46. Apple died when Jobs died

Their products are not what they used to be.

Tim Cook is just a bean counter. Probably a Log Cabin Republican.

[bamagal62]

52. I'm not surprised.

Tim Cook went to Auburn University and is from Mobile.

[City Lights]

61. Grotesque. nt