Donald Trump said Apple CEO Tim Cook called him to discuss the billions of dollars that Apple has been fined in the European Union. Trump made the statement during his appearance on the PBD Podcast — and said that he won’t let the EU “take advantage” of US companies like Apple if reelected.
“Two hours ago, three hours ago, [Cook] called me,” Trump said. “He said the European Union has just fined us $15 billion… Then on top of that, they got fined by the European Union another $2 billion.” In March, the EU fined Apple around $2 billion after finding that Apple used its dominance to restrict music streaming apps from telling customers about cheaper subscription deals outside of the App Store. The EU later won its fight to make Apple pay $14.4 billion in unpaid taxes.
“[Cook] said something that was interesting,” Trump said. “He said they’re using that to run their enterprise, meaning Europe is their enterprise. I said, ‘That’s a lot… But Tim, I got to get elected first, but I’m not going to let them take advantage of our companies — that won’t, you know, be happening.’”
The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
