After meeting with Donald Trump, Tim Cook explains to employees the importance of engaging with governments

Last week, Tim Cook and several other big names in technology met with the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. The focus of the meeting, as far as is known, was the creation of jobs and issues related to economic growth.

Trump's history with Apple has not had the most pleasant episodes. For example, we can recall the comments he still running for president made about Apple's clash with the FBI in the case of the San Bernardino terrorist's iPhone earlier this year. In addition, the president-elect has already shown interest in making the manufacture of Ma's products domestic (in the USA) and has also “threatened” to increase tariffs on imports of products from China. All of this ended up worrying Ma employees, who were even "comforted" by their CEO as soon as Trump was elected.

In one of the company's internal media, employees asked Cook about the impact of the meeting. The CEO's response was released by TechCrunch:

Last week, you and other technology (industry) leaders met with President-elect Donald Trump. How important for Apple to get involved with governments?

very important. Governments can affect our ability to do what we do. They can affect in positive or not so positive ways. We care about internal policies. Some of our main concerns are privacy, security and education. In addition, we are concerned with supporting human rights for all and continuing to expand its meaning. We are concerned with the environment and really fighting climate change, something we do when using 100% renewable energy in our company.

And, of course, job creation is a fundamental part of what we do. We create opportunities not only for those who work directly for Apple, but also for the large number of people who are part of our ecosystem. We are very proud to have created 2 million jobs in the United States, a large share for application developers. This gives everyone the possibility to sell their work to the world, which in itself is an incredible invention.

We are also concerned with other things more focused on business such as tax reform and something we have long advocated: a simple system. And we would like the intellectual property reform to try to prevent people from opening proceedings when they are not even operating a company regularly.

There are a number of issues like these that we will only help to improve if we engage. Personally, I never thought that being outside of these issues would be a successful position. You can only influence if you are inserted in the situation. So, whether in this country (USA), in the European Union, in China or in South America, we get involved. We get involved both when we agree and when we disagree. This is a very important measure because things do not change by shouting. You change them by showing everyone why your path will be the best. In many ways, a debate of ideas.

We strongly defend what we believe. We think this is an essential part of what Apple does and we will continue on the same path.

After the general meeting, Cook would still have met privately with Trump to discuss the issues discussed in more detail.

For all that the cooker has done within the company, this statement is very consistent with his stance and I believe it would not have been different, even if he did not support Trump's candidacy. We just hope that his charisma will succeed in winning the future president of the USA in order to bring benefits to Ma, its customers and its employees.