
Donald Trump addressed Apple CEO Tim Cook as ‘Tim Apple' in an awkward moment during a White House meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board about technology eduction and jobs.
A transcript of the moment by The Verge: “We're going to be opening up the labor forces because we have to. We have so many companies coming in. People like Tim — you're expanding all over and doing things that I really wanted you to do right from the beginning. I used to say, ‘Tim, you gotta start doing it here,' and you really have you've really put a big investment in our country. We really appreciate it very much, Tim Apple.”
It's not the first time Trump has screwed up the name of a prominent CEO. He once called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, ‘Marillyn Lockheed'.
And USA Today notes: ‘He has referred to his national security adviser John Bolton as Mike Bolton. In January, he also referred to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as “Steve.”‘
The moment was widely mocked on Twitter.
And Late Late Show host James Corden said it could only mean one thing, that Trump calls himself “Donald President”.
But a moment that was perhaps more cringeworthy than Trump calling him “Tim Apple” was when Trump addressed him as “a friend.”