Tech executives from Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta have dined with Trump and donated millions to his inauguration fund and the White House ballroom.

The openly gay soon-to-be-former CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world had his critiques about his home state of Alabama’s lack of LGBTQ+ equality. On Monday, it was announced that Tim Cook is stepping down from the helm of Apple after leading the company following Steve Jobs’ death in 2011.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Tim Cook as an “incredible guy” following Apple’s announcement that he would soon step down as CEO, while also boasting about the time the chief executive had to “kiss my ***” to get Trump’s help on an unspecified “fairly large problem.

Tim Cook laid the groundwork for Apple’s transition into a service-based powerhouse and grew the company to be worth about $4 trillion.

The now outgoing CEO of Apple wasn’t a fan of meeting one of Alabama’s longest-serving governors. Tim Cook, a native of Robertsdale in south Alabama and an Auburn University graduate, was 16 in 1977 when he shook hands with Gov.