
Trump lies about Texas plant manufacturing Apple parts, Tim Cook doesn't react - sebkomianos
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/politics/trump-texas-apple-factory.html
======
Bostonian
Apple shareholders pay Tim Cook to make them money, and Cook is doing what he
is paid for, although it displeases the NYT reporter.

~~~
Finnucane
How does letting Trump take credit make Apple money?

~~~
Bostonian
Trump is always looking to reward/punish his perceived allies/enemies, and
Apple is affected by his tariffs and tariff exemptions.

~~~
Finnucane
So being an obsequious toady is okay as long as there's money in it?

~~~
ksaj
From the shareholder point of view, yes. To anyone else, probably not so much.

------
cromwellian
So far the comments are explaining why Tim Cook would sit silent instead of
doing the right thing: economics. It's the same excuse why they would stay
silent on Chinese government abuses.

It's one of the core critiques of capitalism that companies are unethical and
profit maximizing, caring only about shareholders, not stakeholders. Kowtowing
to liars or autocrats to remain in their good graces is cowardice and enabling
and we shouldn't justify everything because it's good for economics. We should
hold these public companies to higher standards, and that includes taking
actions to get into the good graces of political cronies.

------
larnmar
Trump may have been wrong but I doubt he was lying — merely not correctly
informed. The exact details of Apple’s supply chain are not something I would
reasonably expect the President of the United States to be totally au fait
with.

Tim Cook doesn’t have an excuse though.

~~~
beatgammit
What do you mean? Why would Tim Cook choose to correct the President when it's
election season? If Trump loses, it's bad for Apple to be making Trump look
bad. If someone else wins, it's not going to be because Apple corrected him.
Correcting the President is a lose-lose situation here, so it's best for
Apple's CEO to let Trump have this one.

~~~
cromwellian
So if Trump decides he wants Apple to make an iOS modification that helps the
US government and hurts privacy, and he threatens to lead his supporters
against them, bashing them on the campaign trail, would that be ok?

People tend to give Tim Cook a mulligan on China, because quite frankly,
President Xi could almost destroy them, but Trump holds no such absolute power
over them in the US, and they should be well within their power to push back
and correct the administration for falsehoods, whether or not iPhone owners
who happen to be Trump supporters like it or not.

I suspect they'll complain, but keep buying iPhones. Very few people are going
to change their OS platform because of a political spat.

