Apple CEO Tim Cook visits White House for Trump meeting
Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the White House on Wednesday to meet with President Trump amid escalating trade tensions between the administration and China that involve the tech industry.
The White House and Apple have both been tight-lipped about the private meeting, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that the two would be discussing trade.
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“We will be talking about many things, including how the U.S. has been treated unfairly for many years, by many countries, on trade,” Trump tweeted ahead of the meeting.
Cook and the rest of the tech industry have pushed for a more open trade relationship with China. Trump recently announced $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate.
Spokesmen for the White House and Apple did not respond when asked for details on the meeting. Trump also met with Microsoft founder Bill Gates last month.
The Apple CEO has also been at odds with the administration over its efforts to restrict immigration through a crackdown on visas and an effort to eliminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides deportation protections to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
And on Tuesday night, at Trump’s first state dinner, Cook was accompanied by Lisa Jackson, an Apple executive who led the Environmental Protection Agency during much of the Obama administration. The move was widely seen as a shot at Trump’s own environmental policies and the leadership he installed at the regulatory agency.
But Trump delivered a huge win for Apple when he signed the GOP tax bill in December. Cook has long called for the U.S. to slash corporate taxes, and the tech giant responded to the new law by agreeing to repatriate most of its $252 billion in overseas cash back to the U.S.
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