The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
CEO Tim Cook talks Trump, Steve Jobs
Cook opened up cautiously about his encounters with some of the planet’s most influential men.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is no stranger to the spotlight and being close to the big names. But Cook opened up cautiously about his encounters with some of the planet’s most influential men, from the current president of the United States, the former richest man in the world, and Cook’s former boss.
In an interview with financier David Rubenstein for Bloomberg, Cook opened up about his experiences at Apple and beyond. The interview took place in May at Cook’s alma mater, Duke University. A small segment of the interview, on Cook’s conversation with Trump about trade tariffs, was broadcast last month.
Here are some key points Cook touched on in his 25-minute conversation:
• Cook spoke to President Donald Trump directly about Dreamers, and says, “We are only one court ruling away from a catastrophic case.”
Cook has been an ardent supporter for Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States at a young age and received special protection under an Obama-era executive order. Since Trump moved into the White House in 2017, Cook has repeatedly advocated for congressional action to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals order that protects more than 600,000 Dreamers from deportation.
Cook said to Rubenstein that he brought the issue directly to Trump. He advocated the “importance of fixing the Dreamer issue, now.” He added, “We are only one court ruling away from a catastrophic case,” which may be alluding to the lawsuit brought forth by Texas and six other states to end DACA in a federal district court in Texas.
The White House on Wednesday urged the district court to declare DACA illegal, according to NBC News. Considering two other federal judges ruled that DACA needs to stay, the legal disparity may set up a Supreme Court showdown in the near future, should the federal district court side with the Trump administration’s recommendation.
When Rubenstein asked Cook if he thought Trump heeded his words, Cook replied: “I hope so.”
• Sorry, Cook is not running for POTUS.
For all the talk of Silicon Valley celebrities running for elected office — remember Zuckerberg 2020? — Tim Cook has been quiet on his possible presidential ambition. It turns out, it was because he never had one.
“I’m not political,” said Cook. “I love focusing on the policy stuff, but in the dysfunction in Washington between the legislative branch and so forth, I think I can make a bigger difference in the world doing what I’m doing.”
Cook also said that the election campaign necessary to become the commander-in-chief “kind of eliminates” him from ever considering the jump.
• Cook is available for tech support to a certain man in Omaha.
Cook said he is “overjoyed, thrilled” that Warren Buffett purchased about 75 million more Apple shares in May, on top of the 165 million shares he already had.
“Warren is focused on the long term, so we’re in sync,” said Cook. “It’s the way we run the company. It’s the way he invests. So, yeah, I could not be happier.”
Cook offered to Buffett that he will fly out to Omaha, where Buffett lives, to wire him up with an iPhone anytime. But good luck with that: Buffett in February reportedly told Cook that “as long as I haven’t gotten one the market is not saturated” and that “the day I buy one, there is probably nobody left after that” to sell an iPhone toward.
• Cook came out as gay for “a higher cause.”
Cook came out as gay in 2014. At the time, he said he was inspired by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to do something “more important.”
Cook elaborated more on why he came out, saying he did it for the closeted children who may feel stigmatized by their sexuality.
“I realized there were a lot of kids out there that were not being treated very well — including in their own families,” said Cook. “Kids need someone to say, ‘Oh, they did okay in life, and they’re gay, so it must not be a life sentence in some kind of way.’”
• It took minutes with Steve Jobs for Cook to leave Compaq to join Apple.
In 1998, Cook joined Apple as the senior vice president for worldwide operations after spending just six months at Compaq. He recounted his interview with Jobs, who had just returned to Apple as CEO, and said it only took a few minutes to realize he wanted to join the thenstruggling Apple.
“Steve met me on Saturday, and it was like just minutes into talking with him, I wanted to do it,” said Cook. “I totally shocked myself. There was a sparkle in his eye that I’d never seen in a CEO before. He was turning left when everyone else was turning right. With almost everything he talked about, he was doing something different from conventional wisdom.”
When Jobs stepped down as CEO in 2011 and appointed Cook as his successor, Cook thought Jobs would be in a chairmanesque position inside the Cupertino tech giant. But Jobs died of a pancreatic tumor in October that year.
“My view at that time was that he would be chairman and would do that forever, and we would sort of figure out the relationship change there,” said Cook. “Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way.”