Tim Cook is leaving Apple’s CEO seat, but he’s still handling the company’s political headaches
Tim Cook is giving up the CEO role at Apple, but don’t expect him to fully leave the front line.
Apple says Cook, now moving into the executive chairman position, will continue helping the company with selected responsibilities, including working with policymakers worldwide. In simple terms, he is still one of Apple’s main guys for navigating government pressure, regulation, and especially its relationship with US President Donald Trump.
That matters because Cook has spent years doing more than just running Apple’s products and business. A huge part of his job has been managing political landmines, from US-China tensions to trade policy and antitrust pressure.
During his time as CEO, Cook had to balance Apple’s major business interests in China while also dealing with American political concerns around supply chains, manufacturing, and national policy. At the same time, he built a working relationship with Trump, even when that meant stepping into some awkward public moments.
Some of those moments were very visible. In 2019, Cook gave Trump a tour of a Texas factory, after which Trump wrongly claimed Apple was building a new manufacturing plant in the US because of his policies. Last year, Cook also handed Trump a symbolic gift, a piece of “Made in the USA” glass from Apple supplier Corning, mounted in 24-karat gold.
More recently, Cook was criticised for attending a White House movie night for a screening of the documentary Melania. The visit happened on the same day Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cook later referred only vaguely to the “events in Minneapolis” and mentioned having had a “good conversation with the president.”
Still, from Apple’s point of view, Cook’s political handling has brought real results. His efforts reportedly helped Apple secure an exemption for the iPhone from Trump-era tariffs during the president’s first term. Smartphones also avoided some newer tariffs during Trump’s second term.
That said, Cook has not been able to shield Apple from everything. The company is still facing a major US Justice Department antitrust lawsuit that began under President Joe Biden and is still being pursued under Trump. Apple also fought Epic Games in court and mostly won, but later got blasted by the judge, who said the company had willfully violated a court order and stripped away part of Apple’s control over the App Store. On top of that, Apple has not escaped the latest tariff mess completely, with the company reportedly facing as much as $1 billion in extra costs in a single quarter.
For readers in Malaysia and across SEA, this is not just US political drama for rich tech bros. If Apple gets hit by tariffs, regulatory changes, or App Store rule shifts, the effects can ripple outward fast. That can mean pressure on device pricing, changes to how apps are sold, and new rules around age checks, payments, and platform access. For mobile gamers, creators, and indie app teams in the region, that stuff is very real.
Apple’s next CEO will be John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. He is stepping into the top job at a time when Apple still has to deal with global AI regulation and growing pressure for app stores to verify users’ ages.
So yeah, Cook may be done as CEO, but he is clearly not done doing the dirty work. Apple is keeping him around for the hard conversations, and with everything happening around AI, antitrust, and tariffs, bro is still very much in the match.
Source: The Verge
