Elon Musk’s highly publicised endorsement of Donald Trump became the face of a high-octane election campaign that culminated in Trump taking the Oval Office for the second time. However, what became palpable after the election was that tech doyens across the board were making a beeline to win his approval, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Among the legion of tech titans who publicly stood by Trump’s side was Apple CEO Tim Cook. In January this year, Cook pledged a million dollars from his funds to President Trump’s inauguration fund, hailing the inauguration as an important American tradition, and his donation was to promote a “spirit of unity”. In December last year, Trump called on Cook to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the two met for dinner.

However, within six months of these events, the once warm and cordial relationship between the two had soured, insofar as Cook denied the opportunity to accompany President Trump’s entourage to the Middle East, The New York Times reported, citing two people who were privy to Cook’s decision.

Trump, who rarely minces his words, made his displeasure with Cook’s refusal apparent. In Riyadh, he heaped praises on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang for accompanying the White House delegation. “I mean, Tim Cook isn’t here, but you are,” Trump reportedly said to Huang at an event in which BlackRock’s Larry Fink, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, and Lisa Su of AMD were attendees.

Things came to a head in Qatar, where Trump recalled a conversation with Cook, where the President had a “little problem” with him. “But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India,” he said, referring to Apple’s plans to build U.S.-bound iPhones in India.

At the heart of the seemingly damaging relationship is Apple’s plan to expand its manufacturing footprint in India. Foxconn, its key contractor and the world’s largest contract manufacturer, is going ahead with investing $1.5 billion (₹12,774 crore) in its Indian subsidiary, despite Trump’s insistence on iPhones, which are sold in the U.S., to be made in the U.S.

In hindsight, Foxconn and Apple’s decision to go ahead with their plans look like throwing caution to the wind, as an irate President Trump proclaimed on social media an ultimatum that unless Apple manufactures the iPhone in the U.S., it would face a 25% tariff on such iPhones.

Tim Cook is yet to publicly respond to President Trump’s comments, but Apple had last said that its plans for India remain unchanged. Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, told The New York Times that the Trump administration “continues to have a productive relationship with Apple.”

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump had said in a strongly worded warning to Cook on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Trump’s thinly veiled threat came barely a month after Cook was able to win an exemption from a 145% tariff on iPhones assembled in China to be sold in the United States.

A pugnacious Trump breathing down Apple’s neck could not have come at a more inopportune time for the Cupertino-based company. It has delayed the launch of its much-awaited, overhauled, AI-powered, voice assistant Siri, raising fresh concerns on whether Apple—which hitherto is known for staying ahead of the curve—has been sleeping on the artificial intelligence wheel, as rivals leapfrog ahead with their AI development.

Cook has tried to placate Trump’s agenda of manufacturing in the U.S.—with Apple announcing that it will spend half a trillion dollars (approximately ₹41.75 lakh crore) over the next four years and will start manufacturing AI servers in Houston. Cook, in the last annual shareholder meeting, also said that although the company will foster “a culture of belonging,” it might need to make changes to its policies to comply with the Trump administration’s concerted efforts to dismantle diversity-centric initiatives.

However, none of these measures seem to satisfy Trump, who insists on ‘made in America’ iPhones for its domestic market. “If they’re going to sell it in America, I want it to be built in the United States. They are able to do that,” he said last week.