Trump says Tim Cook called him complaining about the EU fining Apple

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Apple has been facing multiple lawsuits from the European Union and is billing over $15 billion. As Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook’s responsibilities include maintaining relationships with political powers.

Apple CEO Tim Cook allegedly called former President Trump recently to voice his displeasure about the billions of euros the EU fined the corporation. Trump responded that he wouldn’t let the EU take advantage of American companies. 

Phone a friend? Tim Cook calls Trump to complain about the EU 

The former US president appeared on the PBD Podcast, where Bet-David and Trump discussed economics during their extensive discussion of other political topics. During the podcast, Trump revealed that he had spoken with Tim Cook two and three hours before the podcast.

As first reported by The Verge, Trump was unclear about the call, saying Cook told him “something that was interesting,” Trump said. “He said they’re using that to run their enterprise, meaning Europe is their enterprise.” “The European Union has just fined us $15 billion,” Trump added. 

Trump says he told Cook: “That’s a lot,” and “I’ve got to get elected first. But I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies.”

For those unaware, the EU fined Apple almost $2 billion in March after claiming that Apple used its dominance to prevent music streaming companies from informing users about cheaper subscription deals outside the App Store. The EU eventually won its campaign to have Apple pay $14.4 billion in unpaid taxes.

During an interview this week, Trump stated that he spoke with Google CEO Sundar Pichai to complain about the “bad stories” the search engine displays about him.

Moreover, he also says that Elon Musk recently spoke to him at an event in Pennsylvania, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg contacted Trump “a few times” this summer. This would make Tim Cook the latest tech leader to talk with Trump before the election.

What do you think about Trump’s anecdotes? Do you think the US should counter the EU’s decisions surrounding US companies? Let’s chat below in the comments, or ping us on our Twitter or Facebook.