Tim Cook's 'long arc of time' prepared Apple for the trade war

Cook worked to forge personal relationships with US President Donald Trump and his inner circle

- Tim Higgins

Tim Cook and his adherence to the "long arc of time" won—again.

The iPhone is exempt from the White House's latest escalation of the trade war with China, the Trump administration quietly announced late Friday.

The disclosure came after more than a week of existential dread. At one point, Apple had lost almost $800 billion of market value after Trump officials claimed imposing sky-high tariffs on Chinese-made goods would shift iPhone assembly to American factories.

look really, really bad for Apple.

Cook, who rose to CEO from supply-chain whiz, became one of the highest-profile examples of a U.S. corporate leader trying to navigate an escalating trade war that threatened to jack-up the cost of iPhones, cut into the company's lofty profit margins and undo his legacy as the executive most credited with the tech giant's China manufacturing strategy.

Apple never publicly addressed the latest tariff dilemma—though it was clear that Cook was taking behind-the-scenes actions to try to mitigate the fallout. The company rushed India-made iPhones to the U.S., and Cook no doubt lobbied Trump for an exemption from the China tariffs that had soared past 100% in recent days.

Instead, President Trump blinked—again.

The two men seem to be playing a different game. Trump was forced to backpedal by the quickly eroding stock and bond markets—his go-to measure of public support. Meanwhile, Cook looked toward the "long arc of time"—his go-to guide in a world where investors and customers constantly agitate for what's coming next for Apple, have little patience and judge the chief executive on a quarterly basis.

That doesn't mean that for a brief moment things didn't

Yet those in the Trump administration expecting Apple to simply shift iPhone assembly to the U.S. haven't been following how Cook has operated as CEO the past 13 years.