The U.S. Trump administration plans to invite Apple CEO Tim Cook and CEOs of Nvidia, Qualcomm, Exxon Mobil, Boeing and other companies to visit China next week. According to reports, the visit will be held in China from May 14 to 15. Trump’s trip will focus on further establishing a personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer and U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue have been recommending suitable corporate executives to the Trump team. It will be the first official visit by a U.S. president to China since Trump's first visit in 2017.
According to Apple’s previously announced arrangements, Tim Cook will step down as Apple’s CEO on September 1, 2026, and current hardware chief John Turnus will take over as CEO. After stepping down, Cook will continue to serve as executive chairman of Apple, mainly assisting the company in communicating with policymakers in various countries around the world. Cook has recently said that he plans to stay on as executive chairman for a "long term" and that Apple will remain his top priority.
Just two weeks ago, Trump said when talking about Cook that he had "always been a big fan of Cook" and repeatedly showed off the personal relationship that Cook had established with him. Looking back on his first term, Trump once boasted that he was "very proud of the fact that the head of Apple called me and said, 'Fuck me.'" During the two Trump administrations, Cook has always tried to maintain relatively positive and stable interactions with the White House to gain Apple's interest space on issues such as trade, supply chain and regulation.
Public information shows that Cook donated US$1 million to Trump's inauguration fund in 2025, and when Apple announced its US$600 billion US investment plan, he specially made a commemorative plaque made of glass and 24K gold and gave it to Trump to emphasize the importance of Apple's commitment to investing in the United States. As Cook focuses more on external relations and policy lobbying within the company in the future, new CEO John Ternus will be able to focus more on Apple's products and business itself, and is also expected to avoid to a certain extent some of the public criticism that Cook received in the past for his closeness to Trump.