Over the week, the Trump administration announced a set of exemptions for its tariffs imposed on merchandise imported into the USA from China. The exemptions cowl product classes like smartphones and laptops, giving Apple an enormous reprieve for the iPhone, Mac, and extra. In comments earlier this week, Trump bragged about how he “helped” Apple with these exemptions.
A brand new report from The Washington Post dives into the inside workings of the Trump administration, significantly as they relate to Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner.
In keeping with the report, Prepare dinner spoke to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick final week “concerning the potential affect of the tariffs on iPhone costs.” Along with Lutnick, he additionally spoke with “different senior officers within the White Home.” Maybe most significantly, Prepare dinner “avoided publicly criticizing the president or his insurance policies on nationwide tv.”
Wilbur Ross, commerce secretary throughout Trump’s first time period, mentioned it’s unsurprising that the present administration has been receptive to Prepare dinner’s options:
“Tim has an excellent relationship with the president and rightly so. He has been taking part in a really cautious position in that he clearly has an enormous dependency on China however can be massively vital to the US. Basically, he has a number of respect as a result of he’s not a public whiner, he’s not a crybaby, however comes with the true voice of actuality. It’s no shock to me that his options are being effectively acquired.”
Right here’s one other tidbit on Trump and Prepare dinner’s relationship from in the present day’s report:
Prepare dinner joined different tech executives in personally giving greater than $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and other people near the president say he respects the Apple chief. When enterprise capitalist Marc Andreessen first met Trump at his membership in Bedminster, New Jersey, final yr, the president-elect requested him what he considered Prepare dinner, in keeping with a separate individual acquainted with the dinner, who additionally spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain personal talks. Andreessen responded that he was impressed by Prepare dinner’s management of the iPhone maker. Trump agreed, and informed Andreessen that he appreciated how Prepare dinner met with him instantly with no intermediaries, which has not been beforehand reported.
However whereas Apple has received a reprieve from tariffs, that peace of thoughts is likely to be momentary. In an interview on Sunday, Lutnick mentioned that the exemption from the reciprocal tariff isn’t a “everlasting kind of exemption” and a broader plan might be introduced “in a month or two.”
Comply with Probability: Threads, Bluesky, Instagram, and Mastodon.
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. More.
