Apple CEO Attends Secret Meeting to Plot End to Trump’s Presidential Run

The drama continues as both the Democratic Party and the Republican establishment try to figure out how to stop Donald Trump’s march to the White House. Leaders in the technology industry, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, have also joined in the effort and recently attended the secretive American Enterprise Institute’s annual World Forum this past weekend where discussion of how to stop Trump was the hot topic.

Billionaires, tech CEOs and members of congress annually fly to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia to attend the secretive conference. Along with Cook, other high powered tech leaders were in attendance this year including Google co-founder Larry Page and Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk.

What is interesting is according the event’s schedule, obtained by The Huffington Post, it’s clear a strategy session on how to stop Trump was not on the agenda. Apparently, the attendees couldn’t help discussing the issue. A presentation was even given by republican policy analyst Karl Rove about focus group findings on Trump. According to Rove, many voters don’t consider Trump to be very “presidential” and cite his erratic temperament as a major concern. One can assume these findings will be a big part of the strategy to derail Trump’s campaign.

Of course Trump wasn’t the only topic at the conference. The continuing standoff between Apple and the FBI regarding the iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino shooters received plenty of attention as well. It was reported republican Senator Tom Cotton engaged in a fierce debate with Apple’s Cook regarding the issue. The report suggested everyone was uncomfortable about how hostile Cotton was and how harsh he treated Cook.

The case against the FBI has been just another item on the list of issues driving a wedge between Tim Cook and Donald Trump. Trump has suggested Apple’s refusal to “unlock” the iPhone is nothing more than a publicity stunt and has gone so far as to call for a boycott against Apple until they unlock the phone. Ironically, many people noticed Trump had been sending out tweets from his iPhone only an hour before making those remarks.

Cook, on the other hand, has continued to stand on his belief that complying with FBI demands will be detrimental to customer privacy, which Apple has always considered a top priority. Apple has been unwavering in its decision not to comply with the court order demanding the company break into the iPhone 5c in question.

In recent months, Trump has also promised to make Apple build all of its products in the United States rather than outsourcing manufacturing, although he was unclear about the details. He has also suggested “closing up” parts of the Internet because terrorists use it for recruitment. It’s not hard to see why Cook along with other technology leaders have joined the effort to stop Trump, but only time will tell whether their efforts will be successful.

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