Tim Cook blew a big chance to stand up to Trump

Apple CEO Tim Cook had a chance to stand up to Donald Trump. Instead, he stood silently by as the president spouted lies and attacked the free press.

It's impossible to make everyone happy, especially in these tense times. But the CEO of one of the most valuable and influential companies in the world had a chance to speak out. And instead he did nothing.

Texas two-step

On Wednesday, Trump flew to Austin, Texas to meet with Tim Cook at a plant where Apple would be producing its new cheese graterMac Pro computer. Speaking to the press after a tour, Trump made a reference to Apple building plants in the U.S. — which is not quitetrue.

Earlier Wednesday, Apple announced plans to expand its footprint in Austin with a new campus, but the plans don't specify if any manufacturing will take place there. While Trump's slip-up was forgivable in the moment, Cook let it slide without a correction.

But Cook's silence grew deafening later that evening when Trump tweeted that he had just helped Apple open a new plant.

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For starters, the plant Trump toured has been open for years and has been producing Apple products since 2013. Second, it doesn't belong to Apple at all but, rather, to Flex Ltd, an Apple contractor.

Trump claiming credit for something he didn't do is perhaps one of the most on-brand things of the Trump presidency. But, once again, neither Cook nor Apple have stepped up to clarify Trump's lie. We reached out to Apple to see if they had a statement on the event, but they declined to comment.

Perhaps it just isn't worth the trouble for Cook or Apple to get involved. They could shrug it off and chalk it up to "Trump being Trump," assuming that to correct him would be more trouble than its worth. After all, remember all the fuss about Trump's "Tim Apple" flub?

Besides, they may have thought, the press will do the job of correcting Trump anyway. And, in fact, they did.

The China issue

But there's something more troubling going on here, as the New York Times' Jack Nicas pointed out. Cook failed to correct Trump's assertion that Apple was bringing production to the U.S. from China.

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Cook failed to correct Trump when the president said Apple would be making more products in the U.S. Sure, it could have been Cook thinking it wasn’t worth the effort. But it’s hard to ignore the China issue in the background

Trump and Apple have been locked in a staring contest over Trump's proposed tariffs on products made in China, which happens to be where Apple manufactures a slew of its products, including the iPhone. Trump even asked Apple to move production of the iPhone from China to the U.S.

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In an interview with ABC News published to coincide with that Austin campus groundbreaking, Cook took a galaxy brain defense that the iPhone production is, actually, all around you.

"The way I think about it is, the iPhone is made everywhere. If you look at the glass of the iPhone, which everybody touches all day long, that glass is made in Kentucky," he said. "If you were to take apart the iPhone you would see many of the silicone components that are made in the United States as well. The iPhone is the product of a global supply chain."

Fair enough. But the iPhone remains tech's most popular product and Apple brings in billions in revenue from China every quarter. Perhaps the most telling detail in this exchange is when Cook admits assembling iPhones in the U.S. is "not on the horizon."

Cook also soft-pedaled on trade deal talk, saying, "I'm hoping that the U.S. and China come to an agreement, and so I don't even want to go down that road right now."

And Cook doubled-down on Apple's rationale for banning an app used by Hong Kong residents and protesters that shared the location of police in the city. Cook previously said that the app was used “maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimize individuals and property where no police are present.” Acknowledging some backlash, Cook stood firm and told ABC News, "we made the decision unilaterally."

Cook is trying to walk a tight line to keep everyone happy — or, at least, China and Trump, the two figures with power to affect Apple's finances. No one knows what Trump is actually thinking but Cook is fine letting him think whatever he wants even if Apple is staying put in China. By obfuscating the truth a bit, or letting Trump do it for him, Cook is doing his best to keep Apple out of the way of Trump's China fight even if he has to take disingenuous turns to do so.

An excruciating silence

Such kowtowing to Trump is even more frustrating in light of how Cook hasstood up to Trump in the past, most notably around immigration. Just last month, Cook took the rare move of signing his name to a "friend of the court" brief filed with the Supreme Court in an attempt to fight Trump's plans to repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

And that's why Cook's silence became even more excruciating on Wednesday as Trump launched into a trademark anti-press tirade in which he berated specific outlets as Cook seemed to mysteriously melt into the background.

Trump's attacks had an extra edge coming in the midst of his impeachment hearings. The president attacked The Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, and ABC News, all storied media institutions who have earned their reputations as reliable sources of quality journalism. Cook refused to dispute Trump's false and spurious assertions. (It's worth pointing out that noneof the mentioned publications are part of Apple's News+ subscription service.)

Yes, standing up to Trump could have very, very expensive repercussions for Apple to the tune of billions and those repercussions, in the forms of tariffs, could trickle down to consumers as Apple would surely somehow charge even more for their products. It's not a very appealing business decision.

But taking such a stance would be the legitimately courageous thing to do (as opposed to, say, ditching a headphone jack). People genuinely like Apple products and it would bring Cook tremendous goodwill. If anyone had the power and resources to sacrifice money for the sake of challenging Trump and what's right, it's Cook and Apple.

Instead, we're in this mess. And the end result of it all? Well, on Wednesday, Trump's tone on Apple and tariffs seemed to soften as he indicated his administration will look into giving Apple some tariff exemptions.

And, then, on Thursday morning, Trump bestowed his ultimate gift upon Cook and Apple: blessing by tweet.

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Balancing what's right with what's profitable is never an easy thing, especially when you're leading a company as big as Apple, while screwing up is really easy. Just ask Mark Zuckerberg. From privacy to human rights, Cook has always seemed — no matter how you might feel about their actual products — to put emphasis on the right side of the ledger.

But after Wednesday, it's hard not to lump him in with other Big Tech CEOs. After all, Apple has been a fan of creative maneuvering to avoid paying taxes and plenty of questions linger about how it operates in China.

And when he had a chance to stand up to our authoritarian bully president, to use his position of power to refute the lies coming from the White House (admittedly at great risk to his own personal wealth), Cook, instead, silently faded into the background, hoping it would all blow over and just go away.

UPDATE: Nov. 21, 2019, 5:35 p.m. EST Updated with note on Apple declining to comment on the event

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