Mike Wuerthele
In an interview on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump noted that Apple CEO Tim Cook had called him, but no mention was made about the topics of the conversation the pair may have had, following Trump's contentious remarks on the campaign trail.
Speaking with The New York Times, Trump claimed that both Cook and ex-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates had called him to discuss matters relevant to each. Apple, and by association, Cook, has plenty to discuss with the President-elect.
Trump says Tim Cook from Apple called him, so did Bill Gates.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
iPhone manufacture in the U.S.
In a campaign speech at Virginia's fundamentalist Liberty University in January, Trump promised that he would force Apple to manufacture its hardware in the US instead of looking to overseas labor.
At the same rally, Trump proposed a 35 percent tax on any business making goods overseas, including Apple.
Tim Cook has publicly rejected the idea of moving iPhone construction to the U.S., citing labor force and raw material issues. Regardless of public comments, Apple has reportedly commissioned reports by Foxconn and Pegatron to examine the possibility of migrating iPhone production, with mixed results.
Confusion about cash repatriation
While mass media portrays Trump's 10 percent overseas earnings tax proposal as a reduction in the effective taxation rate to repatriate cash, the proposal as it stands levies the tax regardless of they were returned to the U.S. or not.
Trump himself has made contradictory claims on what he plans to do about or for companies who wish to return a large overseas cash stash to the U.S.
Trump, on Apple encryption
Following the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c encryption debacle, Trump called for a boycott of Appleback in February.
"First of all Apple should give the security for that phone, okay?" Trump said at a rally in South Carolina. "What I think you oughta do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number. How do you like... I just thought of that."
Investigators wanted Apple to create a backdoor in iOS to unlock an iPhone 5c that was tied to the 2015 massacre, but Apple said doing so would potentially compromise the security of every iPhone on the market.
Investments in Apple
In May, financial documents showed that Trump has multiple investments in Apple, worth between $1.1 million and $2.25 million.
At this point, it is unclear what the President-elect wants to do about potential conflicts of interest, with a Tweet earlier in the day suggesting that the U.S. voting base were fully aware of international business interests, and didn't care, during the election.
Prior to the election it was well known that I have interests in properties all over the world.Only the crooked media makes this a big deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
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66 Comments
The Trump government - The slow unfolding of a train wreck of epic proportions. He has already doubled back on most of his major campaign promises - vague as they were.
"First of all Apple should give the security for that phone, okay?" Trump said at a rally in South Carolina. "What I think you oughta do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number. How do you like... I just thought of that."
The Donald and his followers can turn over their computer and smartphone passwords to the NSA today, without waiting for an act of Congress. So let's begin with that, and see how many True Believers put national defense ahead of their personal privacy and security. "I just thought of that."