President Trump says Apple CEO Tim Cook called to complain about EU’s $17 billion in fines
Apple CEO Tim Cook and U.S. President Donald Trump at tech summit in June 2017
Former U.S. President Donald Trump said on the PBD Podcast posted on Thursday that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him to discuss the $17 billion in fines that Apple has been hit with by the European Union (EU). Trump said that he won’t let the EU “take advantage” of American companies like Apple.
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, he [Cook] called me,” Trump said. “He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion… Then on top of that, they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion.” In March, the EU fined Apple around $2 billion after finding that Apple used its dominance to restrict music streaming apps from telling customers about cheaper subscription deals outside the App Store. The EU later won its fight to make Apple pay $14.4 billion in unpaid taxes.
“He [Cook] said something that was interesting,” Trump said. “He said they’re using that to run their enterprise, meaning Europe is their enterprise. “I said, ‘That’s a lot… But Tim, I’ve got to get elected first, but I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies — that won’t, you know, be happening.’”
The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
MacDailyNews Take: Things that make you go “hmm.” One thing’s for sure, Cook isn’t wrong about the EU:
The European Union arose because the Europeans couldn’t compete on their own with the rest of the world, so they each lined up to surrender their national sovereignty, unique cultures, and dignity for an undemocratic, opaque, wasteful, bloated, bureaucratic quasi-governmental blob – and, even with the EU’s thumbs all over the scale, they still can’t compete. — MacDailyNews, March 4, 2024
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