Once Tech’s Golden Child, Apple Loses Its Luster as Scrutiny Grows
Pressured over its App Store and its handling of customer data, Apple can no longer sidestep the criticism directed at peers like Amazon and Facebook.
Apple CEO Tim Cook at a courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on May 21.
Photographer: Noah Berger/AP PhotoApple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook might not have shared the values of Donald Trump, but he knew how to get his ear. While the CEOs of Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google faced accusations of anti-Republican bias—and Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos openly feuded with the former president—Cook dined with Trump at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club and cultivated relationships with his children.
The payoff? When Cook had a problem, he needed only to pick up the phone. “Others go out and hire very expensive consultants, and Tim Cook calls Donald Trump directly,” Trump said in August 2019, speaking in the third person. “Whenever there’s a problem, he’ll call.”