Donald Trump isn t too fond of Apple — perhaps the feeling is mutual.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly was among the tech bigwigs at a secret meeting on Sea Island off the coast of Georgia with the Republican party establishment and others over the weekend. The meeting s purpose, according to the Huffington Post, was to find a way to beat Trump, the businessman and reality-TV star turned presidential front-runner who has the Republican elite in a tizzy.
Other tech figures who were reportedly at the American Enterprise Institute s annual World Forum: SpaceX and Tesla s Elon Musk, Google co-founder Larry Page and Sean Parker of Napster and Facebook fame.
Trump has slammed Apple in public, saying during a January speech that we re going to get Apple to build their damn computers in this country instead of other countries. One of his campaign talking points is bringing jobs back to America. He has repeated the statement about Apple at least a couple of times, without providing details about how he might influence Apple s manufacturing practices — like many other companies, it makes most of its products in Asia — or turn back globalization. During that same speech, Trump reportedly proposed a 35 percent tax on American companies that make their products overseas.
In February, Trump called for a boycott of Apple over the Silicon Valley company s controversial refusal to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino killers. As many pointed out, though, Trump — a skillful user of social media — often tweets from an iPhone, and owns a couple of million dollars worth of Apple stock. Trump later tweeted he uses both an iPhone and a Samsung phone, and would use only his Samsung until Apple gave in and helped the authorities. (He might be using that Samsung for a while.)
By the way, the Huffington Post also reports that one senator in attendance, Tom Cotton, was harsh and hostile toward Cook over Apple s battle with the FBI.
As for how Trump has addressed other tech-related issues: After the deadly San Bernardino massacre in December and amid renewed concerns about terrorists online use, he said we have to see Bill Gates about closing that Internet up in some ways. And last week, the candidate who has ridden a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment said during a televised debate that he was softening his position on H-1B visas — something he has criticized Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and fellow presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio over — although his campaign backtracked on that the next day.
Trump has also reportedly spoken a little about U.S. cybersecurity by pointing at China as the top threat.
Other notable attendees of the weekend meeting, according to the Huffington Post: Longtime GOP strategist Karl Rove, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy. Also: billionaire Philip Anschutz, New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.
Photo: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump signs autographs at a campaign rally March 7, 2016 in Concord, North Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
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