How Apple CEO Tim Cook justified his decision to meet with Trump to Apple employees\n\n

How Apple CEO Tim Cook justified his decision to meet with Trump to Apple employees\n\n

Posted by John P. Bradford // December 23, 2016

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Apple CEO Tim Cook won’t be on the sidelines. That’s the crux of why the chief executive of the world’s most valuable company joined President-elect Donald Trump and dozens of other tech executives in Trump Tower in New York City last week.

Outside of this must-read filing by Recode’s Kara Swisher, details on the meeting have been sparse, at least until Cook recently shared his thoughts on an internal Apple message board. TechCrunch obtained the communication, which has since been verified by Apple.

An Apple employee asked Cook: “How important is it for Apple to engage with governments?”

“It’s very important,” Cook opened, and then, went on to elaborate on various policies that governments control, that could affect the fate of Apple, and all who work there.

Here’s the list, as pulled from Cook’s response:

• Privacy and security

• Education

• Human Rights

• Environment and energy

• Jobs

• Tax reform

• Intellectual property reform

“Governments can affect our ability to do what we do. They can affect it in positive ways and they can affect in not so positive ways. What we do is focus on the policies,” Cook wrote.

Apple’s already faced the government down on security issuesfollowing the shooting in San Bernardino, Apple refused to provide technical assistance that would help the FBI access the iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook. As for climate change, Apple pledged to run the business on 100 percent renewable energy.

In order to keep these policies intact, Cook said he had to be in the room. “Personally, Ive never found being on the sideline a successful place to be,” Cook wrote. “The way that you influence these issues is to be in the arena. Sowhether its in this country, or the European Union, or in China or South America, we engage. And we engage when we agree and we engage when we disagree.”

“I think its very important to do that because you dont change things by justyelling. You change things by showing everyone why your way is the best. In many ways, its a debate of ideas,” Cook continued.

Again, on a personal note for Cook, he campaigned for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In August, he had hosted a fundraiser for the candidate, and it was reported that Cook was on the list of potential VP candidates, along with Bill Gates and Melinda Gates.

It wasn’t the first time Cook has spoken with his team about Trump. Cook sent a memo to all U.S. Apple employees after Trump’s win, where he emphasized the company’s commitment to diversity.

Cook was one of the lucky ones to have a seat at Trump’s roundtable last week. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey didn’t even receive an invite.

Read more: http://mashable.com/2016/12/20/apple-cook-donald-trump/