Tim Cook personally donates $1,000,000 to Donald Trump's inauguration
It looks like Apple is the latest tech giant to bend to knee to Donald Trump, as CEO Tim Cook has reportedly donated $1 million to his upcoming inauguration.
Cook and Trump are said to have cultivated a symbiotic working relationship over the years, and back during his first presidency, the Apple CEO would phone the President and talk through things directly.
There have been intimate dinners, and in December 2024, Cook was hosted at the Mar-a-Lago resort as other tech bosses were apparently scrambling to get in Trump's good books.
Jump forward to Trump’s upcoming term, and Cook has reportedly donated $1 million to his inauguration.
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Although Cook is said to have personally donated the money himself instead of giving through Apple, it's thought these massive companies are trying to get the President-elect on their side.
The news comes courtesy of Axios, which says the donation "reflects a long, collaborative relationship between Trump and Cook."
Cook's pledge comes off the back of $1 million donations from the likes of Toyota and Ford, $2 million from Uber, and others from Bank of America, Coinbase, AT&T, and more.
As noted by Newsweek, some of the biggest tech companies around have been donating to the Trump inauguration. Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI have all apparently donated $1 million, which looks to put his donations far ahead of those made to Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021.
A Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing shows that Apple donated just $43,200 to Biden's inauguration, while Amazon gave $276,000, and Meta and OpenAI didn't donate anything.
At the time of writing, there's no sign of monetary backing for Trump from Google or Microsoft. Google gave $337,500 to Biden, while Microsoft offered $500,000.
Trump has clashed with many of these tech Goliaths, with his Facebook account famously being removed in the aftermath of 2021’s January 6 Capitol riots.
He's also locked horns with Jeff Bezos over several issues, with the Amazon CEO criticized for the decision to ensure The Washington Post (which he owns) didn't show allegiance to either Trump or Kamala Harris.
Still, Bezos referred to Trump's win as an "extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory."
When it comes to these latest donations, Meta's is seemingly from the company itself, whereas both Cook and OpenAI's Sam Altman are thought to be making personal donations.
Trump is seemingly aware of his new popularity, telling a December press conference: "The first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend."
Cook came under fire for congratulating Trump on his win back in November 2024, but remembering that Ivanka Trump has coined the nickname 'Tim Apple' and Trump has previously shared his admiration of the Apple CEO, it's no real surprise.
Discussing Apple under the leadership of Cook, Trump once said: "If Tim Cook didn't run Apple, if Steve Jobs did, it wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is now."
Of course, all of these donations pale in comparison to the rumored $277 million Elon Musk has spent to help get Trump back into the White House.
Then again, with Musk's wealth booming to make him the first person to be worth over $400 billion, cozying up to Trump looks like it's set to pay off.