PRESIDENT Donald Trump is meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the White House on Thursday (Feb 20), according to a source familiar with their plans.
The source shared the details of the meeting on the condition of anonymity, but did not provide the agenda for the discussion.
Cook is among the tech industry leaders who have sought to nurture a close relationship with the president since his reelection, attending his inauguration last month and travelling to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida during the presidential transition.
Cook’s company risks being caught in the middle of an escalating trade fight between the US and China, with Trump’s 10 per cent tariff on Chinese-made goods posing a challenge for Apple as it seeks to address sluggish iPhone sales. China is weighing a probe into Apple’s policies and the fees it charges app developers. China is Apple’s biggest manufacturing hub, while the US is its largest market.
During Trump’s first term, Cook was able to leverage his relationship with the president to win tariff carve-outs for its signature iPhone. But the president has suggested that the company’s devices might not be so lucky this time as he seeks to impose sweeping new tariffs on imported goods, telling reporters that he’s looking to avoid exemptions.
Shortly following the election, Cook posted to social media that Apple looked “forward to engaging with you and your administration to help make sure the United States continues to lead with and be fuelled by ingenuity, innovation, and creativity”.
But Trump has also sparred with the company over its privacy policies, saying it should do more to help federal law enforcement access encrypted phones. Apple has resisted requests from law enforcement to build a backdoor into its phone operating system that would allow authorities to access data without a user’s password, saying that could leave phones vulnerable to hackers. BLOOMBERG
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