Latest ‘Tim Apple’ twist as Donald Trump takes to Twitter to explain

It’s the ‘mistake’ everybody has been talking about so far this month. Plus, it seems, the story that keeps on giving…

So, during an advisory meeting at the White House, US President Donald Trump appeared to call Apple CEO, Tim Cook, “Tim Apple”.

Mr Cook, whose name appeared on a card right in front of the 45th President, was talking about teaching code and programming to school children. Trump congratulated Cook on putting “a big investment” into the country.

However, while doing so, eyebrows were raised. “We appreciate it very much, Tim Apple,” said Trump. Inevitably, the world’s media has since been all over this story and it went big on Twitter.

Trump just called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” pic.twitter.com/gTHHtjWvc9

— Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) March 6, 2019

This isn’t the first time Trump has used the name of a company to refer to its CEO, though. In 2018 he called Marillyn Hewson (CEO of Lockhead Martin), Marillyn Lockhead. Let’s not forget either that he often refers to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as ‘Jeff Bezo’.

But it’s what has followed since that is quite interesting…

During the conversation Cook politely nodded along. Trump’s reported “gaffe” was then followed by a discussion about the US border wall and trafficking.

Later Cook poked fun by changing his Twitter name. It currently features an apple emoji after the forename Tim.

Donald Trump has hit out at ‘Fake News’ once again.

According to Axios, Trump reportedly told donors that he actually said “Tim Cook Apple” really quickly, and that the ‘Cook’ part was softly spoken. So-called ‘Fake News’ was then blamed, despite a video contradicting Trump’s description of events.

Anyway, this week it’s taken another twist. As Mashable UK report, President ‘Trump can’t stop lying about the ‘Tim Apple’ flub for some strange reason’.

Donald Trump has now taken to Twitter to explain…

Trump, as is often the case, took to Twitter to set things straight. Well, to attempt to anyway! Now he is claiming that he said ‘Tim/ Apple’ as a way of saving words.

“At a recent round table meeting of business executives & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words,” he tweeted.

“The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!”

At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019

One donor reportedly told Axios that Trump’s decision to apparently lie about the mistake was strange, as “it doesn’t even matter”.

Mashable UK concur, reporting that of all Trump’s flubs “this one is pretty damn low on the list of importance” – especially when you think back to the “would”/ ”wouldn’t” fiasco regarding whether or not he believed Russia’s denial of interference in the 2017 election.

We here at FileHippo would of course never publish ‘Fake News’! You can read more of our stories explaining software companies’ attempts to cut out fake reporting here.