Tim Cook may be relinquishing Apple's top job, but the company is not letting its longtime leader drift far. Cook, who handed the CEO title to veteran hardware chief John Ternus on Tuesday, will remain at Apple as executive chair with an annual salary of $2 million effective Sept. 26. In that role, Cook will keep supporting certain parts of the business, including "engaging with policymakers around the world," the company said in April when it announced his new position (Apple Newsroom). Keeping an outgoing CEO in a chairmanship is a well-established succession pattern in corporate America, allowing companies to retain institutional knowledge and key relationships during a leadership handover—something especially valuable when the departing executive has been the company's primary channel to Washington.

A key reason Cook is staying on may be that, over his 15-year tenure, he became something of a "Trump whisperer" in managing Apple's relationship with the president. He earned that nickname through his ability to strike deals and keep dealings smooth with Trump, evident in both his tariff negotiations and this year's CEO transition.

Cook has even said he continued managing the company's relationships not only with Trump but also with the Chinese government, according to Bloomberg. Those relationships have grown increasingly important to Apple, whose sprawling Asian supply chain places it at the center of Trump's push to use tariffs to bring more manufacturing to the U.S.—while also forcing it to navigate tensions between Washington and Beijing.

His compensation will not stop at the $2 million annual salary. According to a regulatory filing, Cook was also approved for an equity award with a target value of $45 million.

Cook exits the CEO role after 15 years at Apple's helm, having taken over shortly before cofounder Steve Jobs' death in 2011. During his tenure, Apple's market capitalization grew from roughly $347 billion to $4.6 trillion, all while the company increasingly dealt with government alongside its products and operations. The stakes of that shift are clear: major technology companies now face escalating scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in Washington, and Apple's reliance on Asia-based manufacturing has made tariff policy a recurring bottom-line issue for the company. How Ternus, who takes over with a hardware engineering background, manages those same government relationships will be one of the defining questions of his tenure.

How Tim Cook became the 'Trump whisperer'

Cook figured out relatively early how to win Trump's ear.

"He's the one that calls me," Trump told reporters in 2019 when asked why he had a better relationship with Cook than with other tech executives. Tariffs were a pressing issue at the time. Trump said Cook had argued that levies on Apple's China-made products could disadvantage the company against South Korean rival Samsung.

The relationship was tested again after Trump returned to the White House. In February 2025, Apple announced it would spend $500 billion in the U.S. over four years, including plans to hire 20,000 workers.

Yet Cook's access to Trump did not guarantee Apple always got what it wanted. By May 2025, Trump was publicly criticizing Apple as the company expanded iPhone production in India as part of efforts to reduce its reliance on China.

"I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said at the time, recounting a conversation with the Apple CEO. Trump said he told Cook he did not want Apple expanding production in India and wanted the company to manufacture more in the U.S. Days later, the president threatened Apple with a tariff of at least 25% on iPhones sold in the U.S. but manufactured elsewhere.

Three months later, Cook was back in the Oval Office standing beside Trump—arriving with a customized "Made in USA" glass plaque mounted on a 24-karat gold stand for the president.

Last August, Apple announced another $100 billion commitment to U.S. manufacturing, bringing its planned domestic spending to $600 billion over four years. The timing mattered: Trump was preparing to impose a roughly 100% tariff on imported semiconductor chips, but said during the Oval Office event that companies building in the U.S. would not have to pay the levy.

That work extends well beyond the White House. Apple remains heavily dependent on Asia for manufacturing even as it shifts some production away from China, leaving it exposed to the relationship between the world's two largest economies. Cook has spent years navigating Apple's ties with Beijing, and earlier this year he was among a group of U.S. executives expected to accompany Trump on a trip to Beijing as the president prepared to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump has offered his own explanation for why the relationship endured. When Cook announced in April that he would step down as CEO, the president recalled receiving his first call from the Apple executive during his first administration.

"When I got the call I said, wow, it's Tim Apple (Cook!) calling," Trump wrote on his social media app, Truth Social (post), a nod to when he had years earlier referred to Cook as "Tim Apple." Trump called it the beginning of "a long and very nice relationship." He said Cook continued calling him over the years—but "never too much"—and that he would help the Apple CEO where he could.

"What I do is I interact on policy, not politics," Cook told ABC's "Good Morning America" in March. "I focus on policy."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.