'Pathetic': Critics blast Apple CEO Tim Cook for 'shamefully bowing' to Trump
Social media commenters quickly condemned Apple CEO Tim Cook after a report he joined other billionaires in donating to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.
Axios reported Friday afternoon, citing anonymous sources, that Cook plans to personally donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee. Cook is worth about $2.3 billion, according to Forbes.
The donation comes after Cook reportedly dined with Trump last month at Mar-a-Lago. It also comes as billionaires cozy up to the incoming president, including tech executives Sam Altman of OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who each donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund.
Cook is donating to Trump in the "spirit of unity," according to Axios. He has engaged with both Democratic and Republican policymakers.
The internet predictably rebuked Cook over the donation.
"Billionaires showing their true colors. Tim Cook no different than the others," chided journalist Judd Legum on Bluesky. He noted Cook doesn't appear to have donated to previous inaugurations.
Cook, however, donated about $236,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund in 2016.
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In a separate post, Legum continued: "Remember the concept of 'f--- you' money? Meaning if you have enough you don’t have to worry about pleasing anyone? Today, the wealthiest people in the world still feel the need to prostrate themselves to Trump Because, for them, no amount of money is enough."
Marc Elias, a voting rights activist and attorney who founded Democracy Docket, remarked on Bluesky, "Tim Cook is just the latest in a long line of billionaires shamefully bowing down to Donald Trump."
He added in a second post: "Too many billionaires and the legacy media = [an emoji of a man bowing]."
"Another W [anchor emoji] Pathetic Tim Cook," wrote retired attorney Fionna O’Leary.