Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and the ‘Melania’ Trap
There is no ‘I’m kinda Trump’: You either are or you’re not
Apple CEO Tim Cook has had a long, distinguished career, arguably the most successful career of any current non-founder executive in America. He received widespread praise and support when, in 2014, he became the first Fortune 500 chief executive to publicly come out as gay.
“No one owes the public such a deep view of his personal life. People underestimate how hard this is,” former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said at the time. “But someone had to be first. For Tim, this was a commitment to make life easier and better for others. It was a generous and courageous thing to do.”
But now, following his appearance at the Melania premiere this week, if you search for him today on any of the social media platforms, here’s what you’ll find:
On one level, so what? Social media, or corners of it, being mad at a zillionaire is nothing new. Plus, like all social media outrage, this too shall pass, probably the minute someone else plops down in the hot seat.
But it didn’t.
What followed was almost certainly not what Cook had in mind when he agreed to watch one little movie at the White House.
And that’s where this story actually begins: