Cook has openly embraced Trump, particularly in his second term, attending the president’s inauguration, presenting him with an engraved golden trophy, and giving money to the White House to help construct the president’s $300 million pet project ballroom.
The relative workplace calm may be over. “I hope we never find out, but I seriously started wondering what our leadership would do if an Apple employee was summarily executed by our government,” wondered one employee.
Many workers claimed hypocrisy between Apple’s longtime professed commitment to progressive values and causes and the extent to which its CEO has cozied up to the Trump administration. “But but but…. we changed the Apple website to MLK last Monday, so that cancels out.” Another pointed sarcastically to the company’s recent announcement of Black History Month Apple Watch bands. “Went to hang out with the guy who didn’t even acknowledge MLK Day and took away park access on the day,” commented one worker.
For some, the affront was personal. “As a lifelong Minnesotan and an Apple badged employee for over half my life I feel pretty abandoned by the company that has told me it stands for humanity more times than I can count,” wrote another worker. “Silence on ICE violence speaks volumes.” Another pointed out the “Three retail locations in the Twin Cities and not a peep” from Cook. “This isn’t leadership. This is an absence of leadership.” To which a colleague quickly countered: “I disagree, this IS leadership. This is intentional, nobody travels to the white house by mistake.”
An Apple employee who has spent decades at the company said they had noticed a marked cultural and political shift within Apple under Cook’s tenure. “A lot of people are talking about how Steve Jobs would have never given a gold bar to a politician,” referring to the 24-karat gold trophy Cook presented Trump at the White House in August.
Oh wow a rich white gay man hid behind his sexuality to present faux-progressive values when he was actually pretty conservative? Funny how that keeps happening.
It’s almost like class identity often matters more than social identity in respect to politics.
He’s the perfect example of “Well they aren’t breaking down my door, it’s their door a few houses away.”
Never had an apple product, mainly because of their lock down eco system. I used to recommend apple products for those that are not tech savvy (boomers). I know Google and Microsoft are similar, but I usually think of apple as a socialist OS in the sense of what boomers think socialism is.
I seriously started wondering what our leadership would do if an Apple employee was summarily executed by our government
This person is warped if they think Apple’s “leadership” will give a shit. Everything is acceptable as long as profits continue to increase.
Leave Tim Apple alone. The man just needed a big room where he wouldn’t be disturbed by anyone else.
Cancelled apple music, moved over to Deezer, found thatvitbis actually much better service anyway.
Not livid enough to do anything. So, ignore this faux-lib propaganda. Billionaires are gonna billion, Trump is gonna Trump, and no one is gonna stop them. The “liberal” media is trying to placate you into think change is happening. It is not. Do not fall for it
Out of all the atrocities billionaires commit hourly, I don’t think “watching a movie to carry favor with the authoritarian regime” even ranks
Solidarity with evil is evil.
I don’t disagree with you, I just said that out of all the atrocities billionaires commit hourly, I don’t think “watching a movie to carry favor with the authoritarian regime” even ranks. People are getting overly emotional about the smallest act of self preservation
Linus Torvalds didn’t.
Casting this in terms of what movie he watched when is asinine.
Not trying to protect Apple or Tim Cook, but can I just say that the headline is kinda silly.
This
Cook has openly embraced Trump, particularly in his second term, attending the president’s inauguration, presenting him with an engraved golden trophy, and giving money to the White House to help construct the president’s $300 million pet project ballroom.
should be a much bigger problem than watching a random movie at some random that was probably planned weeks in advance.
But I guess they need something news-worthy to pin it on.
The headline is telling what it took for the Apple employees to start speaking out. The headline is correct. Apple employees are the assholes for not speaking out earlier.
This is beside the point but PLEASE stop calling it a ballroom. It’s a bunker, data center, situation room, and whatever the fuck else they decide to pack in there
The Führerbunker
Hopefully where Trump resets his brain
I mean, those are more sensible. IMO, ballroom sounds worse than that though because it seems frivolous.
As if Tim Cook cares what Apple employees think …
If there was only something Apple workers could do to send a message to Tim Cook that he can’t ignore. If only there was a card they could sign, and together do an action, a … collective action of some sort…
maybe one where they join together in a kind of organized… group? collective? I don’t know what the word would be for that, but it’s right on the tip of my tongue…
In mathematics it’s called a union, but idk if that’s related
I think this is how you pronounce it, if that’s of any help to anyone
We could call it a iNion. And we think you’re going to love it.
I’m shocked people are shocked Apple is supporting Trump. Apple’s been contracting slave labor from CCP concentration camps. They sell expensive gadgets that are hardwired to not let people repair them, and harass those who offer fair market repairs. Again, though, slave labor. Apple has not been on the side of human rights in decades.
Amazon, Dell, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Xiaomi have all used Foxconn. By 2012 it was producing 40% of all consumer electronics. That blood is on everyone’s hands.
Likewise Amazon, Samsung, Google, Tesla, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Cisco, Sony, and Microsoft all have supply chains tied to CCP forced labor. Hell Volkswagen has been tied to it. Over 100 global brands were found to be connected in a 2025 investigation.
So let’s not act like Apple’s out there alone in this. You’ve most certainly got electronics in your house that have components produced in such a way. You’ll buy more.
However, you’re very much right in that Apple is not the company it used to be. Lots of us who have used Macs since the 80s or 90s have an emotional connection to the platform and the brand, which has taken a lot to dissolve.
When Apple was the underdog, churning out failures and oddities, it was easy to love them, even as we despised a lot of the decisions they made. They were the crazy alternative to giant corporate bullshit. Jobs would walk into recruitment interviews with IBM employees, barefoot, sit on the conference table, and ask if they had ever done acid. Was he an asshole of epic proportions? Yes. Was he fascinating and unlike anyone in the industry? Yes.
Now people are waking up to the real Apple of today, the one that’s become a massive corporate juggernaut, the one that openly supports fascism, and we need to keep encouraging that, giving people offramps and alternatives, like I am looking for myself. We gotta cheer that on.
"A lot of people are talking about how Steve Jobs would have never given a gold bar to a politician,” referring to the 24-karat gold trophy Cook presented Trump at the White House in August.
Feel like people are giving Jobs a lot more credit than he deserves. We have to remember that there’s a very good possibility that Jobs would still be here IF HE HAD LISTENED TO HIS DOCTORS about treatment for his rare type of cancer that actually have him better odds of survival. He thought he knew better and died because of that foolishness. Kinda sounds like an ego that would serve him well with the republican side of politics, now doesn’t it?
First of all, Steve was a prick who would have sold his daughter to a whorehouse if it guarenteed him fortune and fame. He had that level of issues, often screaming his points at people. I met him twice at the great mall in san jose pre-ipod days while working for CEO Scott Mcnealy at Sun Microsystems.
I will say this though: Steve definitely would NOT have paid off politicians though. He hated politicians enough.
Second, my Dad died of the exact same mother fucking pancreatic cancer and the BEST Steve would have gotten with perfect care would have been an extra year at most. That pancreatic cancer outright destroys you in a very horrible way.
I thought jobs had prostate? Pancreatic has the lowest survival rate I think.
he had a rare type PNET, which actually more survivable, but he decided to go on a full fruit diet instead and waited too long and the cancer killed him. he also selfishly paid to have expedited liver transplant only to die from the disease.
the more common pancreatic cancer is adenocarcinoma, which is more aggressive. usually with regular pancreatic cancer, by the time symptoms show up its already a very advanced stage.
Sorry for your loss. I’ve watched family die and it’s horrible to witness (stroke for my mom. MULTIPLE strokes). I feel you for. BUT I have to say that Steven Jobs had a type of pancreatic cancer that actually gave him an EXCELLENT chance… if he had listened to his doctors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreatic_neuroendocrine_tumor NOW I’m not going to act like I’m a doctor and know if he actually had a real shot but it’s absolutely true that he DID IGNORE EXPERTS in his treatment. AND, Jobs died in 2011. That leaves us a gap of 5 years before Trump got elected the first time and 13 year gap for the second election. There is a lot of time of people stroke Jobs’ ego if he were still around. A lot of time for the power and the wealth to seep into him and corrode any semblance of morality he had left. Jobs was already a NIGHTMARE to work for and if he had lived that would have probably only had gotten WORSE if Apple’s fortune continued going in the direction it has in reality. He already wasn’t a good person, how much of a stretch would it have been for him to bend the knee and kiss the nazi’s ring? Given how much other major tech CEOs have done so already, I don’t think Jobs would have contradicted that trend. BUT this is speculation from me at best, the man is dead. MY POINT is that Jobs was still a piece of work and was already on the fringes of “can’t trust established experts cause they don’t know better than me.” He would have felt right at home with the anti-vax movement, would have rallied AGAINST mask mandates, etc etc etc. He was already so aligned with the Right, I just don’t see him taking a stand against Trump who could have promised him and Apple company a free “do whatever the fuck you want” pass, as long as he played nice with Trump. IDK, I don’t trust the popular interpretation of what “Steve Jobs would have done if he were he were still around” in this political climate.
