Trump Says Tim Cook Made 'Good Case' That Tariffs Would Put Apple at Disadvantage With Rivals Like Samsung

[A MacBook lover]

I am not sure most people understand the 300 Billion dollars (USD) per year that is stolen and resurfaces in private Chinese companies products and services. That is a big deal and Trump, love him or like him, has been the only President to address this situation head on. Trump has a lot of faults, but I don't feel his actions against China are one of them.

The most recent example is the STOLEN source code from Tesla Autopilot. That’s years of work and money, now stolen by the chinese, and now used in Xpeng Motors. And because Xpeng never went through the costly R&D phase of developing AP, it puts them at an advantage to price their cars lower and undercut Tesla.

These people tried stealing IP from Apple.

By that alone, I stand by Trumps decision to punish China.

 

[Fozziebear71]

Hahaha wowwwwww they've really got your number, huh? First of all, the quality of those jobs is utter crap. Not to mention all the jobs he's shipping out of the country (look up Carrier air conditioning factory). The tax cuts have actually added more to the deficit and only serve the rich. Borders are the same as ever except for that wall you people keep clamoring on about that obviously isn't happening which is good

Today I learned that liberals NOW care about the deficit.

 

[brinary001]

Order and class ain't coming in 2020 either. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
No way the US public is going to vote in any Democrat who advocates for free medical care for illegals and doesn't believe in the sovereignty of borders. The 2016 election, the recent election in Australia and some Euro elections show that it's blatantly obvious that the majority of westerners don't believe in far left progressive politics and will vote in somebody like Donald Trump to make sure the far left don't get in power. That's how much the far left scares normal people...

Huh? I didn't say anything about a far-left candidate... Personally I'd like to see a GOP challenger take on Trump but it won't happen. I'm moderate/independent but you better believe I'll vote for anyone who isn't Donald Trump, Dem or not.

And wtf are you talking about the world HATES America even more now because we elected an orangutan to lead the free world. Have you even spent any time abroad lately? I traveled across seven different countries last year and I cannot tell you how embarrassing it was revealing I was an American because everyone I encountered was like, "Umm so what's up with your joke of a president..?"

And he won't win again because we're about to enter a recession. I'm actually happy about this because it'll guarantee Trump won't get re-elected. No president has ever been re-elected when a recession happened on their watch. We can survive a recession, but what we absolutely cannot do is survive four more years of Trump.

Fun fact, all the recessions have been caused by Republican presidents!
[doublepost=1566229284][/doublepost]

What does restoring order and class to the White House mean? We certainly didn't have it from 2008-2016. Didn't like GWB either, but Laura Bush had class. The Clintons...probably the lowest class we've ever had. Don't care for many of Trumps antics but he had a hell of mess to clean up from 8 years of neglect. And do you really think a total change of parties in control will actually change anything? That thinking is how we got morons like Obama and Trump in the White House.

Classifying Obama into the same cesspool as Trump told me everything I needed to know about you. That is some SERIOUS cognitive dissonance. Wow.
[doublepost=1566229518][/doublepost]

Today I learned that liberals NOW care about the deficit.

Didn't say I was liberal, but okay. You people just like to come up with whatever bull **** fits your narrative. It's alright, we're pretty used to it by now.

And literally every recession has happened during a Republican presidency. So stop pretending like you all give a damn about the economy because you don't. You only care about yourselves.

 

[nt5672]

Their relationship is so weird:

1. Trump really seems to have respect for Tim Cook. You wouldn't expect him to say "Ah yes, he actually makes good points, I'll think about it"

2. It's weird that from all business leaders - it seems that Tim Cook is the one who has the closest relationship with president Trump. In many ways he is the "Anti Trump". I can't help imagining Cook thinking "what an idiot" everytime they meet.

3. What if they actually are friends? That would be an even stranger relationship of a political leader and a celebrity being friends than Kim-Jong Un and Dennis Rodman.

For disclosure: I'm European and while I find Trump irritating, I wouldn't call myself Anti-Trump (nor pro-Trump).

Having different ideologies should not mean hate and disrespect. Hate and disrespect are actually the bigger problem.

Objectively reading the news should point out the origin of hate and disrespect.

The fact that Trump reflects it back when attacked should be not be misunderstood. He is very respectful and gracious when he is treated respectfully and graciously.

 

[jimbobb24]

If China places restrictions on their markets, that is not the concern of America. Just because they're doing the wrong thing doesn't mean our president should be doing, or has the right to do the wrong thing in response. His purpose as President is to ensure that the rights of his citizens are protected, and that includes their right to trade with whomever they choose. He has no business and no right assessing which people in which countries the individuals in his country are or not allowed to trade with, or at what price they're permitted to do it. Any deviation from an absolute protection of rights is not reflective of a free market, or a free market capitalist. Plain and simple.

In the long term this is true. In the short term these non-free distortions can create problems within the fabric of our society that are non-trivial and the gains and consequences from this trade may fall disproportionately on different groups (Silicon Valley gets billionaire, appalachian valley get poverty). Temporary exemptions to free trade in order to ensure on average better trade for all citizens is a reasonable maneuver. Long term trade tariffs as policy- I totally agree with you. Short term for negotiations - I am coming around to it being reasonable.

 

[thefourthpope]

Today I learned that liberals NOW care about the deficit.

The deficit has become one of the most interesting party platform swaps in my lifetime. Republicans used to (claim to) care, now they clearly don’t. Democrats clearly didn’t care, now they (claim they) do.

 

[Fozziebear71]

Didn't say I was liberal, but okay. You people just like to come up with whatever bull **** fits your narrative. It's alright, we're pretty used to it by now.

And literally every recession has happened during a Republican presidency. So stop pretending like you all give a damn about the economy because you don't. You only care about yourselves.

This may come as a surprise to you, but all anybody has to do is read your comments to understand that you are a liberal. People don't need you to declare it to make it so.

 

[dk001]

Their relationship is so weird:

1. Trump really seems to have respect for Tim Cook. You wouldn't expect him to say "Ah yes, he actually makes good points, I'll think about it"

2. It's weird that from all business leaders - it seems that Tim Cook is the one who has the closest relationship with president Trump. In many ways he is the "Anti Trump". I can't help imagining Cook thinking "what an idiot" everytime they meet.

3. What if they actually are friends? That would be an even stranger relationship of a political leader and a celebrity being friends than Kim-Jong Un and Dennis Rodman.

For disclosure: I'm European and while I find Trump irritating, I wouldn't call myself Anti-Trump (nor pro-Trump).

I suspect it is likely TC is one of the few at that business level who would give an "honest" answer / opinion and lay it out with the facts to back it up instead of a manufactured problem / solution.
[doublepost=1566231501][/doublepost].
.
Wading my way through this thread. Wasn't going to read it till I noticed a very glaring media gap; this discussion is all over the business / finance channels but is pretty much absent on the main news channels unless some "anti-Trump" or poke at the China "trade war".

Have to give Trump kudos for making the effort to dive into the weeds on the tariff possible impact to tech / cyber.

 

[smoking monkey]

Huh? I didn't say anything about a far-left candidate... Personally I'd like to see a GOP challenger take on Trump but it won't happen. I'm moderate/independent but you better believe I'll vote for anyone who isn't Donald Trump, Dem or not.

And wtf are you talking about the world HATES American even more now because we elected an orangutan to lead the free world. Have you even spent any time abroad lately? I traveled across seven different countries last year and I cannot tell you how embarrassing it was revealing I was an American because everyone I encountered was like, "Umm so what's up with your joke of a president..?"

And he won't win again because we're about to enter a recession. I'm actually happy about this because it'll guarantee Trump won't get re-elected. No president has ever been re-elected when a recession happened on their watch. We can survive a recession, but what we absolutely cannot do is survive four more years of Trump.

Mate, all the Dem potentials are far left at this point if they advocate for free healthcare for illegals. Just like Bernie was shafted last time, the same thing will happen to ensure the Party gets their preferred candidate to lose in 2020. It seems to me that the Dems haven't learnt their lesson from 2016 and are on course to go back to back IMO.

I'm talking about facts, election results. Not some anecdotal conversations with people! The left leaning Aust Party lost the unloseable election because the Australian public got scared off by the far left policies. It wasn't subtle either. They got caned by a by-the-numbers moderate conservative who would have been destroyed in any other era.

Even when previous conservative governments were in power, I never wished for my country to do poorly and move into a recession. It's an incredibly selfish thing to wish because it means a lot of pain and hardship for ordinary folks.

IF Trump gets re-elected the only people to blame will be the Democrats for not learning their lesson.

 

[Defthand]

I wonder how it feels for Tim Cook to meet such a simple-minded person like president Trump, and actually having a conversation with him.

I love this comment because it demonstrates how powerful perception is. It's my favorite brain science topic because I spent a career watching advertisers exploit it. Trump's comments on affairs do seem simple-minded. As do Cook's comments on Apple's products and ambitions. Realistically, we know neither man could achieve his position if he were a moron. They are playing to their audiences.

I've encountered people who were considered brilliant or very wise about a subject by their peers. Unanimously, they were people of few words. They stated their opinion concisely, without arguments and explanations. They were that damn sure of their intelligence or experience. If you lacked their insight, that's a void you'd have to fill yourself. Conversely, there's no shortage of verbose explainers, debaters, and armchair experts that appear knowledgable because of their thesis-long answers and vocabulary. Just look around this forum. I'm guilty of the same road-making contributions when I could just leave breadcrumbs and exit.

 

[mannyvel]

They are playing to their audiences.

The media portrayal of people and real life are very different.

But in any case you can narrow most problems that reach Trump's level into relatively simple terms. There are always complications, but at that point the issue should be distillable pretty well, especially given the number of layers that it goes through.

At Trump's level the questions are "which one of these things should we do." The various options etc should be pretty well known, and people are just looking for direction. While there are always unknowns, it doesn't take a nuclear physicist to decide which option to do - or to do nothing at all.

While it would be nice to have a President who was more erudite, you get what you get. As Presidents go he's been surprisingly effective, given that he was one-and-done for elections. He's not the guy who's going to redefine the world; he's a real estate developer and TV star from New York City. He might (and is) redefining the world by accident, but if you look at history the people who have attempted to redefine the world "on purpose" have done a pretty horrible job, so it's not a real problem.

 

[KGBguy]

Love the picture, King Donny and his wife look great, the dude on the right looks like he's getting his usual prostate check.

 

[BaltimoreMediaBlog]

I wonder how it feels for Tim Cook to meet such a simple-minded person like president Trump, and actually having a conversation with him.

Being a single minded bean counter and not a detailed product person, I'm sure Tim Cook got along with Trump just fine.

 

[barbu]

There's only one billionaire in that picture, are you saying you like Trump well?

wikipedia reports Tim's net worth as US$ 1.3 billion. So, yeah. One billionaire in the photo.

 

[dk001]

You realize that recessions happen about once every 5–10 years and, with that having been said, we're now well overdue for one, right? Economies don’t expand indefinitely, and we’re already seeing this current expansion approach its ceiling.

Over the next several months, there are several major events/factors — the most important being Brexit and trade warring — which pose serious risks to already slowing economic growth across the globe. Both the 2Y–10Y and 3M–10Y yield curves have inverted, both common and reliable indicators that a recession is on the horizon, likely to occur within 6–18 months.

The economy’s pretty much on stilts at this point, held together with duct tape and bubblegum and credit. It won’t take much to kick off a recession — so again, kindly let me know how the “booming” economy is working out in a year or so.

You do realize that is an "average" and along with Bonds is strictly an indicator? Even worst case we would be looking 6-24 months out.
The economy recession indicators are not showing for the US. Global? Yes. Interest rates are way down, all else is strong. Don't be surprised if this start to trend down if Trump doesn't call the China issue a "win" and watch the economy get a boost. There are a lot of cards that can be played.

 

[dk001]

.
.
After reading this thread it is alarming the number of posters here who have a hatred of anything Trump and / or Cook. So many posts to this emotion instead of the topic itself.

Wow.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

wikipedia reports Tim's net worth as US$ 1.3 billion. So, yeah. One billionaire in the photo.

I checked Forbes before I posted and they had him at $645M.

 

[wellander1]

If they want to outsource maybe other countries like Canada will be better.
And less transportation costs too.

 

[w5jck]

I'm glad an intellectual businessman was able to talk a little sense into the pea-brained POTUS who clearly cares only for the 1% elite wealthy but was somehow elected by the "Stupid Majority" of voters with IQs below that of the average squirrel. Unfortunately POTUS is too much like Gilligan and too easily swayed with every change in the wind direction and speed. He tends to change his pea sized mind about once every hour or so. Who knows what he will say, do, are support 15 minutes from now.

 

[Fozziebear71]

I'm glad an intellectual businessman was able to talk a little sense into the pea-brained POTUS who clearly cares only for the 1% elite wealthy but was somehow elected by the "Stupid Majority" of voters with IQs below that of the average squirrel. Unfortunately POTUS is too much like Gilligan and too easily swayed with every change in the wind direction and speed. He tends to change his pea sized mind about once every hour or so. Who knows what he will say, do, are support 15 minutes from now.

Perfect example of why Trump was elected.

 

[barbu]

I checked Forbes before I posted and they had him at $645M.

Forbes, eh? OK. Sure let's go with them then. LOL

 

[GuruZac]

Yet we have a booming economy. More jobs, low unemployment, and were finally standing up to a country that commits humanitarian atrocities, steals $300b in intellectual property, and cheats America for jobs.


China has stolen IP from Tesla, this makes Tesla less competitive as Xpeng can undercut Tesla, as they didn’t have to invest millions in R&D, they just stole the source code.

China almost successfully stole IP from Apple

1 in 5 corporations have had some form of IP theft from China in last year.

Amen. I don’t like how pedantic Trump acts and his ego is nauseating, but the fact remains, he is taking on some of the biggest issues that our better speaking, more polished career politicians we just love to vote for wouldn’t or didn’t have the backbone to deal with. It’s as if anti-Trumpers think making it more difficult for people to come here illegally is racist (somehow?) and punishing China, tough as it may for us in the interim, is bad. The fact Trump has had to be then one to deal with this is sad. You hear pathetic political candidates talk about all these issues and what do they do, nothing. Trump has been talking about China ripping us off since the early 1980s, and now that he is in a position to do something he is. Like it or not.
[doublepost=1566237216][/doublepost]

Classifying Obama into the same cesspool as Trump told me everything I needed to know about you. That is some SERIOUS cognitive dissonance. Wow.

Trust me, the fact that you appear to not see Obama as a classless yahoo who was in way over his community organizing head says all I need to know about you as well.

 

[tgwaste]

Free market capitalist my @$$. The idea that Tim Cook needs to plead with he top elected official of his own government in the hopes that he'll protect his rights, when that's his only proper function as President is an abominable state for this country occupy. What a shameful "leader."

The fact that he CAN do this and even change the mind of the president is why America is so great you bone-head. Go live somewhere else.

 

[brinary001]

This may come as a surprise to you, but all anybody has to do is read your comments to understand that you are a liberal. People don't need you to declare it to make it so.

Still not a liberal but if it's that important for you to think I am, then I can't stop you
[doublepost=1566238270][/doublepost]

Mate, all the Dem potentials are far left at this point if they advocate for free healthcare for illegals. Just like Bernie was shafted last time, the same thing will happen to ensure the Party gets their preferred candidate to lose in 2020. It seems to me that the Dems haven't learnt their lesson from 2016 and are on course to go back to back IMO.

I'm talking about facts, election results. Not some anecdotal conversations with people! The left leaning Aust Party lost the unloseable election because the Australian public got scared off by the far left policies. It wasn't subtle either. They got caned by a by-the-numbers moderate conservative who would have been destroyed in any other era.

Even when previous conservative governments were in power, I never wished for my country to do poorly and move into a recession. It's an incredibly selfish thing to wish because it means a lot of pain and hardship for ordinary folks.

IF Trump gets re-elected the only people to blame will be the Democrats for not learning their lesson.

I don't want my country to do poorly, it's just the only way out at this point. It's a lesser of two evils thing, and some economic turmoil is a hell of a lot less evil than Trump.

 

[brinary001]

Trust me, the fact that you appear to not see Obama as a classless yahoo who was in way over his community organizing head says all I need to know about you as well.

Well let's see: one of them has a family he cares about very much and genuinely just wants to move the human race forward, while the other bangs porn stars, WANTS to bang his own daughter, gives props to white supremacists, refuses to do anything about the environment (oh except for rolling back protections of endangered species), and the list goes on and on.

Like how tf can you even compare these two? Ohhhh that's right, Obama was black. So Trump can get away with anything by default. Man talk about privilege, eh?