Apple CEO Tim Cook mocked after giving ‘embarrassing’ gift to Trump

Tim Cook was on a charm offensive during his visit to the White House, where he presented Donald Trump with a flashy gift featuring a 24-karat gold base - a move that social media users declared "embarrassing".

The billionaire Apple CEO shared news in the Oval Office on Wednesday of his company's additional $100 billion investment in American manufacturing, after an initial $500 billion pledge in this area was announced in February.

It comes at a time when the tech giant is trying to avoid Trump’s controversial tariffs on imports, which could affect the costs of its products (iPhones, iPads, laptops, etc) in the US.

During the event, Cook presented Trump with an engraved piece of glass and a 24-karat base.

"This glass comes off the Corning line, engraved for President Trump," Cook explained. "It is a unique unit of one."

He also revealed how it was designed by a former military officer who now works at Apple.

Cook then slotted the circular glass disc into a gold base on the Resolute Desk and then congratulated Trump as he shook his hand.

The clip of Cook's gift-giving has gone viral, and it didn't go down well on social media, where people called this display "embarrassing" and couldn't quite believe what they were seeing.

Editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan wrote, "Imagine being a billionaire, in charge of one the most powerful, influential companies in the history of world, and prostrating yourself to Trump in this very public and embarrassing way. Sheesh."

Another person added, "He probably would have been fine with the cash equivalent."

"Imagine if a democratic president did s*** like this," a fourth person commented.

"Bribing the President with a block of gold live on TV is wild," another reacted.

"Billionaire literally handing the president gold inside the White House lmao. This country cannot be real," someone else responded.

"You reckon Zuck [Mark Zuckerberg] will bring frankincense or myrrh?" another person questioned.

"Never been more proud to be a PC/Android than I am today," someone else declared.

Trump was also just as complimentary to Cook at the beginning of the event, where he described him as, “One of the great and most esteemed business leaders and geniuses and innovators anywhere in the world.”

The president continued by saying the Apple boss has “just about every quality he can have other than athleticism. I don’t know about that. I’m looking at him. I’m not, I’m not a 100% sure about you [being] a good athlete. I’ll bet you’re pretty good.”

Elsewhere, Trump gets defensive as he's fact-checked on 'fake polls', and Trump confuses Kristi Noem for pro golfer.

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