Apple CEO Tim Cook Plans to Attend Trump Inauguration Next Week

Apple CEO Tim Cook is reported to be attending President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week. Cook will be among many other CEOs of high-profile tech companies.

As reported by Bloomberg, Cook will attend with notable CEOs such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Tesla’s Elon Musk. The latter is also one of Trump’s staunchest backers and supporters during the latest campaign and the months since the election. Although Apple declined to comment on the matter, the report claims that a person familiar with the matter confirmed Cook’s attendance.

This year, Cook donated $1 million USD (around $1.4 million CAD) to Trump’s inauguration. At the time, it was claimed that Cook did so as he believed the inauguration symbolized American unity. The donation came from Cook personally, with Apple not donating any monetary amount. Cook also congratulated Trump on the election campaign on X (formerly Twitter). Last year, following Trump’s success during the election, Cook joined the President-elect at Mar-a-Lago for dinner.

Since the election, President-elect Trump has managed to raise $200 million USD (roughly $287.6 million CAD) for his inauguration, shattering records. Much of this likely comes from Trump’s connections with large-scale tech companies. Since November, companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google, Uber, OpenAI, Ford, GM, AT&T, and more have made donations to Trump’s inauguration fund.

With Trump’s aggressive focus on introducing tariffs once he enters office, Cook likely wants to ensure Apple avoids such tariffs at all costs. During Trump’s first term as president, Apple was able to avoid tariffs on several products, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac. However, devices such as Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod were not exempt from the rule. The company had to request a waiver to avoid additional tariffs on the products that Apple was importing from China.