[liuliu]

Trump is the president. People voted him into the Office. Tim Cook didn't give him the golden statue before he is in the Office.

Everyone in the United States is complicit to the horrible things done by the Trump administration by your logic. I partially agree, but I also think burning Apple to the ground will not be Tim Cook's legacy and he is in no place to go against the executive branch.

It is not about Trump, it is about the corrupted executive branch. Tim didn't do any crime against humanity in his act.

[throwaway173738]

No, before Trump 2 nobody would’ve taken bribes and gifts so openly like this. It’s not even in the same league and it’s some really self-serving argumentation to pretend otherwise.

Every complicity is another nail in the coffin of our democracy.

[phist_mcgee]

Nor does the cop who demands $100 for letting you go without arresting you.

But they're still responsible for their own personal piece of the rot in the system.

[rescripting]

Is Tim the cop or the motorist in this example?

If a cop says your problems go away for $100, you pay it, because the downside is huge by comparison. The problem is the cop getting away with it, not that you paid the bribe.

[2muchcoffeeman]

I hope you’re not comparing a gold trophy to a straight up bribe. It’s like giving Trump your Noble peace prize.

Having the prize doesn’t make you the winner. But it feeds Trumps ego sooooooo muuuuuch, it’s probably the “best” thing you can do to get on his good side without actually giving him anything.

[tastyface]

Cook stood up to the FBI. He could have stood up to Trump -- he just didn't want to.

[liuliu]

That's a lawful FBI. This is a lawless executive branch. As we all know by now, executive branch has a lot a power that cannot be limited by Congress nor the Courts and erasing a few zeros from 4T market valuation is a piece of cake (as we witnessed daily how they moved billions around the market to their favorite inside traders).

[tastyface]

Tanking Apple would tank the economy -- the one thing Repubs are afraid of. Cook could have used that.

Other, much smaller organizations have stood up to Trump and forced him to back down. So much for "courage."

[liuliu]

Like you said, yes, it is about courage. I just felt that I won't have that courage when I were in his shoes. We can just be different.

[mcmcmc]

> Everyone in the United States is complicit to the horrible things done by the Trump administration by your logic.

This is a ridiculous strawman. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume ignorance instead of malice.

I wrote that going above and beyond to curry favor with an autocrat in order to protect your profits is collaboration.

And you read, what? Existing under a government means you necessarily support it because there was an election? You do understand an election means some people voted the other way, right?

[pb7]

Not an ounce of self reflection in this comment.

He's not an autocrat precisely because there was an election. He won the election because he got the most votes. He has since failed to do most things he campaigned on because his power is very limited by virtue of our government's structure.

[mcmcmc]

Sorry for dropping the implied “wannabe” in autocrat, I figured HN commenters would be smart enough to infer that based on context. He is pushing and breaking boundaries on every front. No, he never accomplished any of the outlandish promises he made about the economy because he was lying and his team is incompetent, same reason the Iran war is a disaster. Project 2025 has been going pretty damn well though.