Apple Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Cook has donated $1 million to the Inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump on Monday, January 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. According to additional reporting from Mike Allen of Axios, sources say Cook “believes the inauguration is a great American tradition, and is donating to the inauguration in the spirit of unity.”
Cook’s public relationship with the New York native dates back to his first term as President of the United States from January 2017 through January 2021. During that time period, the tech executive met with the 45th U.S. President several times. More recently, the Apple CEO met with the former host of The Apprentice at his residence in Florida last month.
In an article titled, “How Tim Cook Cracked the Code on Working With Trump,” Chip Cutter and Aaron Tilley of the Wall Street Journal explained that Cook had “developed a meeting strategy with Trump where he would bring one data point to home in on a single issue in a meeting.” Using this strategy, Tilley and Cutter’s reporting leads them to believe that Cook was able to “keep the meetings from spiraling in too many directions.”
Cook is far from the only executive or large business to financially support the Trump-Vance administration or Inauguration Day. Toyota, Ford, General Motors, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have all reportedly made seven-figure donations.
