Senators press Tim Cook and ‘Big Tech’ on million dollar donations to Trump fund amid ‘corruption’ concerns

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennet have formally asked Apple CEO Tim Cook and other “Big Tech” leaders to respond to questions regarding their million dollar donations to the Trump inauguration fund. Getting straight to the point:

These donations raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money on the Trump administration, and Congress and the public deserve answers. Therefore, we ask that you provide responses to the following questions by January 31st, 2025:

Cook, for instance, committed $1,000,000 to the Trump inauguration fund compared to $43,200 to the Biden inauguration fund. Why the $956,800 difference between administrations? The two senators lay out their suspicions:

Apple CEO Tim Cook donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, while Apple is the subject of a DOJ antitrust suit, as well as over 20 open NLRB cases related to unfair labor practices.

They left out the part where the Biden administration declined to veto a ruling in favor of Masimo that would have allowed Apple to continue selling Apple Watches with blood oxygen sensing in the United States.

Anyway, Cook is joined by the likes of Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Sam Altman, and Uber for having donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund.

“It is critical that federal regulators continue to evenhandedly apply competition, consumer protection, anti-discrimination laws and any other rule or law that applies to your company,” reads the letter signed by Warren and Bennet. “But the industry’s efforts suggest that Big Tech companies are trying to curry favor and skirt the rules. This would be good for billionaire tech executives, but it is bad for America: if left unchecked, Big Tech monopolies will threaten consumers’ rights, run roughshod over workers, and squash competition while stifling innovation.”

Sam Altman, who like Cook donated personally and not through his company, shared the questions sent to him and the other CEOs and companies on X.

1. When and under what circumstances did your company decide to make these
   contributions to the Trump inaugural fund?
2. What is your rationale for these contributions?
3. Which individuals within the company chose to make these donations?
4. Was the Board informed of these plans, and if so, did they provide affirmative consent to do so? Did your company inform shareholders of plans to make these donations?
5. Did officials with the company have any communications about these donations with members of the Trump Transition team or other associates of President Trump? If so, please list all such communications, including the time of the conversation, the participants, and the nature of any communication

While Cook isn’t one to publicly post these sort of things, Altman voiced his concern on X:

funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats…

it was a personal contribution as you state; i am confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision.

Next up: Tim Cook attends the now-indoor-due-to-cold-weather inauguration of President-elect Trump on Monday. Nvida CEO Jenson Huang is notably one of—if not the only—tech CEOs to opt out of attendance.

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