Tim Cook says Apple is ‘probably the most non-political company’ despite Trump visit

You’ve all seen the photos – Apple CEO, Tim Cook, shaking hands with Donald Trump in a factory in Texas, standing over a new Mac Pro. But now, Cook is arguing that Apple are one of the least politicised companies out there. 

Cook told Fox: “We’re probably the most non-political company out there. We don’t give to political campaigns, candidate campaigns and so forth. But we do focus on policy, because we want to be a contributing citizen of the United States and help the country in any way we can.”

“Non-political company”? So, why invite one of the most controversial Presidents ever to your factory, Tim? Well, the Apple CEO claims that, without being partisan, it’s still important to be involved.

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“My perspective is that engagement is always best, because simply standing on the sideline and yelling doesn’t accomplish anything but polarisation. So, I want to suit up and play a role. If I disagree with something I want to try to influence it. If I agree on something I want to try to amplify.”

However unhappy, or indeed happy, you are to see Cook and Trump meeting up, it will be interesting to see where this burgeoning relationship between Apple and the US government leads.

Cook was still keen to remind viewers that “there are differences” between him and the President and that plenty of the things they discussed are concerns which, he says, cross party lines and political divides.

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The CEO explained: “There are differences, there’s no doubt about that, but you look for intersections. I care a lot about creating jobs and I think the President does as well. I care a lot about training the work-force for the future and the administration cares a lot about this as well.

“I think one of the US’s major challenges is to solve this issue – as technology speeds up, over and over again, and jobs are disrupted and jobs are created, we have to make sure our education is preparing people for the disruption and the creation. I think if we do that we can flourish in this environment, but if we don’t we leave a lot of people behind. That should be unacceptable for all of us. These are just two of the things where there’s intersections. I think most people would say those are non-partisan. The creation of jobs should be non-partisan, education should be non-partisan.”