Trump details Cook call to ‘kiss my ass,’ and his dealmaking prowess

President Donald Trump praised Tim Cook and outgoing President Donald Trump in a lengthy Truth Social post on Tuesday. Apple He boasts that the CEO is “an incredible guy” and that Cook turns to him when he needs help.

“For me, it all started with Tim’s phone call at the beginning of my first term,” Trump said. wrote. “He had a pretty big problem that only I, as president, could solve.”

Trump continued: “When I got the phone call, I was like, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!), how big of a deal is this? I was so impressed that the president of Apple called to ‘kiss my ass’.”

Apple representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s Truth Social post.

The post is emblematic of White House relationship dynamics under Trump. Business leaders have at times shown a willingness to please the president to advance their own interests.

Daniel Weiner, director of the elections and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said Trump’s post was a look at his “nakedly transactional yet also clearly personal approach to governing.”

“The expectation is that CEOs of powerful companies will call and pay their respects and receive favors in return,” Weiner said. “That may have been the way governance actually happened at various points in our history, but it was certainly never ideal. And now it’s kind of being celebrated as an idea.”

Cook, who left his post after nearly 15 years in office, was particularly effective in guiding the administration. During Trump’s first and second terms, he appealed directly to Trump to shape policies on taxes, tariffs and other issues affecting the iPhone maker.

The overtures worked most of the time. Last year, Cook secured relief from Trump’s sweeping tariffs on phones, computers and chips that are critical to Apple’s profitability. While Trump acknowledged “helping Tim Cook” in the move, the White House refused to grant privileges that would benefit specific companies.

“During my five years as president, Tim would call me, but never too much, and I would help him as much as I could,” Trump wrote Tuesday. “Many years later [sic]After 3 or 4 BIG HELP, I started telling people, anyone who would listen, that this guy was a great manager and leader.”

On some occasions, Cook went beyond phone calls to address Trump. In August, after Apple announced it was committing another $100 billion to American manufacturing, he gifted Trump a 24-carat gold and glass statue with the words “Made in USA” written on it.

John Ternus, currently senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take the helm at Apple on September 1, and Cook will assume the role of executive chairman. Apple has hinted that it will continue to benefit from Cook’s masterful approach to politicians.

“Cook will assist with certain aspects of the company, including relations with policymakers around the world,” Apple said in a press release.

Trump’s unfiltered insight into how he won Cook’s support comes as other Silicon Valley leaders pursue a similar strategy.

technology managers AmazonApple, Google And Meta I had dinner with Trump during his first and second administrations. They also donated millions to the inauguration fund and the president’s planned $300 million White House ballroom.

Despite public conflict over Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” Musk, the world’s richest man, has remained close to the president. In November, he attended a dinner at the White House with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and reportedly In March, he participated in a phone call between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A White House dinner with tech CEOs last September came under intense scrutiny after attendees took turns praising Trump.

Following the event, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was heard deferring to Trump on a hot mic about how he would frame his company’s spending plans, after saying the company would invest “at least $600 billion in the US by 28.”

Moments later, Zuckerberg said to Trump, who was sitting next to him: “I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready to do what we were going to do… I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to pick.”

Zuckerberg later addressed the hot mic moment. a Topic postHe said he was confused at the time because Meta was weighing whether to invest “even more” in the US after 2028.

“I wasn’t sure which number he was asking about, so I shared the low number of 28 and clarified it with him later,” Zuckerberg wrote.

Intel Trump took a page from Cook’s playbook after pressuring CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign following reports of Tan’s ties to China. After Tan went to the White House for a face-to-face meeting, Trump described him as “successful.”

The following week, the US government acquired a 10% stake in Intel with an investment of $8.9 billion. This came from outstanding CHIPS Act grants and government awards for semiconductor manufacturing.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and a donor to Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, was a former Trump critic who changed his mind in 2025. sent to x in January of that year: “watching @potus Being more careful lately has really changed my perspective on it.”

In late 2025, Trump issued a sweeping executive order repealing many state-level regulations regarding AI; this was a huge win for Altman and other industry leaders who encouraged such action.

Altman has sided with Trump on several high-profile AI announcements, including Trump’s Stargate joint venture and another project in the United Arab Emirates, both of which were announced last year.

The startup CEO, who maintained a close relationship with Trump during his second term, also struck a deal with the Pentagon to build advanced artificial intelligence systems in secret environments, hours after OpenAI rival Anthropic was blacklisted by the administration.

OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman reportedly donated $25 million to Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., in September.

Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos have sympathized with Trump during his second term in the White House; This is in sharp contrast to Trump’s first term, when he frequently attacked the e-retailer. The president frequently insulted Bezos, The Washington Post’s ownership and tax records.

The Trump administration last year praised Bezos, who appeared on stage at Trump’s inauguration, for his decision to revamp the Post’s editorial pages to focus on “civil liberties and free markets.”

Last April, Trump said Bezos, who steps down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021, was “awesome” and a “good guy.”

Amazon has been criticized for investing $75 million in the “Melania” documentary about the First Lady, produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Melania Trump. MPs described this move as a step “pay to play plan” and questioned why the company was paying so much more than usual for documentaries.

Amazon insisted it did nothing “improper.” Diversity.

Companies outside Silicon Valley also went to great lengths to win over the president.

Last year, extraordinaryCBS, which owns CBS, agreed to the $16 million settlement with Trump after the president filed a lawsuit alleging that an interview he gave with Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” was deceptively edited to make the then-Democratic presidential candidate look better.