President Donald Trump praised Tim Cook, who’s stepping down as Apple’s CEO later this year, as “an incredible guy!!!” who had “an AMAZING career.”
Trump also said the tech exec once called him during his first term in office to ask for help on an unspecified matter — and Trump said his reaction was that “I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass.’”
Trump, in a post Tuesday morning on his Truth Social account, said Cook called with “a fairly large problem that only I, as President, could fix.”
Trump continued, “Most people would have paid millions of dollars to a consultant, who I probably would not have known, but who would say that he knew me well. The fees would be paid but the job would not have gotten done. When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that? I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass.’” (“Tim Apple” is what Trump mistakenly called the exec at a 2019 White House summit attended by Cook and other members of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.)
Trump, without providing details about the issue Cook supposedly reached out for help on, said that Cook “explained his problem, a tough one it was, I felt he was right and got it taken care of, quickly and effectively. That was the beginning of a long and very nice relationship.”
According to Trump, “During my five years as President, Tim would call me, but never too much, and I would help him where I could. Years latter, after 3 or 4 BIG HELPS, I started to say to people, anyone who would listen, that this guy is an amazing manager and leader. He makes these calls to me, I help him out (but not always, because he will, on occasion, be too aggressive in his ask!), and he gets the job done, QUICKLY, without a dime being given to those very expensive (millions of dollars!) consultants around town who sometimes get it done, and sometimes don’t. Anyway, Tim Cook had an AMAZING career, almost incomparable, and will go on and continue to do great work for Apple, and whatever else he chooses to work on. Quite simply, Tim Cook is an incredible guy!!!”
Variety has reached out to Apple for comment.
This January, Cook said he had called Trump to discuss “the events in Minneapolis,” referring to ICE agents’ killing of two local residents, Alex Pretti and Renée Good. In a memo to Apple employees, Cook wrote, “I had a good conversation with the president this week where I shared my views, and I appreciate his openness to engaging on issues that matter to us all.”
Over the years, Cook has sought to curry favor with Trump. In August 2025, Cook visited the White House and presented Trump with him a custom-made 24-karat-gold Apple plaque, intended to commemorate Apple’s announcement that it planned $100 billion in new U.S. investment. Cook also personally donated $1 million to Trump’s second inauguration fund (along with contributions from other business leaders). In January, Cook was seen attending a screening of Amazon MGM Studios’ Melania Trump documentary at the White House.
In May 2025, Trump directly threatened Apple with a tariff of “at least 25%” on iPhones manufactured outside the U.S. That didn’t specifically happen, but Apple incurred hundreds of millions in costs associated with the White House’s sweeping tariffs. After the Supreme Court ruled in February of this year that Trump did not have the authority to impose the import levies, the administration is now in the process of paying back over $166 billion in tariffs it had collected.
Trump, in his post Tuesday, began by observing, “I have always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and likewise, Steve Jobs, but if Steve was not taken from the Planet Earth so young, and ran the company instead of Tim, the company would have done well, but nowhere near as well as it has under Tim.”
Cook will step down as CEO to become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors on Sept. 1, 2026. At that time, John Ternus, senior VP of hardware engineering, will become Apple’s next CEO. The transition, which was approved unanimously by the board of directors, follows “a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process,” the company said.
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