Tim Cook Is Latest Tech Exec to Kiss the Ring, Gives Trump’s Inauguration $1 Million

Following in the footsteps of his tech industry peers, Apple CEO Tim Cook has decided to donate a million dollars to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. That news comes from Axios, which reported Friday that the donation represents the culmination of “a long, collaborative relationship between Trump and Cook” that began years ago and has involved numerous meetings, including a recent dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

Of course, Cook is not alone. Last month, it was revealed that Meta had donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, in what was broadly viewed as an effort by the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to thaw relations with Trump (the two have notably had a rocky history). Cook’s donation obviously differs somewhat from that donation, as it is being made by Cook personally. Meta’s donation ostensibly came from the company itself, not the executive behind the company. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has also donated $1 million to the fund, and Amazon has done the same. In general, it seems like the tech industry has lined up to kiss the ring more than usual.

That said, it is routine for companies to contribute to the president’s inauguration fund and a whole lot of other companies have also lined up to contribute to do the same this year. Those companies include Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AT&T, crypto companies Kraken and Coinbase, and others.

Cook may be in a better position than most tech executives. The New York Times writes that the Apple executive enjoyed “a warm relationship [with the President] during Mr. Trump’s first term,” and that Cook’s standing with the president was better than other competitors.

Donations to presidential inaugurations are broadly viewed as an effort to curry favor with incoming presidential administrations. Though the actual presidential inauguration—the part of the ceremony where the President is sworn in—is paid for with public money, many of the celebrations that take place after that initial ceremony are fueled by private donations. A variety of people and organizations can give to the president’s inaugural committee but, more often than not, the biggest donations come from corporations, lobbyists, and political action committees.

Trump’s last inauguration was considered the most expensive in history, with his inaugural committee raising a whopping $107 million. By comparison, Obama’s 2013 inauguration raised about $43 million, while his 2009 inauguration raised $55 million.

The companies that were the biggest spenders for Trump’s 2016 inauguration included Lockheed Martin and Boeing, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, as well as Dow Chemical, Pfizer, Microsoft, Google, and a number of private prison companies. The single biggest contributor was AT&T, with a donation of some $2 million.