Donald Trump vs. Tim Cook? Apple CEO To Meet President In Austin Amid Trade Tension

President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook are still slated to tour Apple's facility in Austin, Texas, sources told Reuters Friday. The location will assemble high-end MacBook Pro computers, with the 16-inch version that retail for $6,099.

Trump will reportedly visit the site Wednesday in an attempt to convince companies to keep jobs in the U.S. Previous MacBook Pro models had been assembled at a contract manufacturing facility.

Neither Apple nor the White House has officially commented on the matter.

The meeting will also be an opportunity for Trump and Cook to speak about the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, which has impacted Apple's business operations. Apple makes many of its products, such as the iPhone and the Apple Watch, in China, which are then impacted by Trump's tariffs on Chinese-made goods. The company has pushed the Trump administration to exempt these products from the tariffs.

Cook has previously attempted to convince Trump that the tariffs will benefit the company's competitor, Samsung, as it does most of its manufacturing in South Korea. In August, Trump said that he thinks Cook "made a very compelling argument" on the matter.

"It's tough for Apple to pay tariffs if it's competing with a very good company that's not," Trump added.

In order to gain favor with the president and the American public, Apple has said in January 2018 that the company will make a $350 billion investment in the economy over the next five years. In August, the firm said that it had a 2.4 million job footprint in the U.S due to its relationship with suppliers.

Trump believes that tariffs on China would create a level playing field for companies and reinvigorate manufacturing. Trump and China are currently negotiating on "phase one" of a trade deal, which would mean that the U.S. would ease the tariffs in exchange for China buying U.S. agricultural products.

Cook and Trump have had public disagreements. Cook in September 2017 sent an employee memo over Trump’s decision to end DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants children of undocumented immigrants a reprieve from deportation. Cook wrote that he was “deeply dismayed that 800,000 Americans — including more than 250 of our Apple coworkers — may soon find themselves cast out of the only country they’ve ever called home.”