Tim Cook may be giving up Apple’s top job, but the company isn’t letting its longtime CEO fall far from the tree just yet.

Cook, who handed the CEO title to longtime hardware chief John Ternus on Tuesday, will stay on as executive chair for the tech company, earning an annual salary of $2 million effective Sept. 26. As chair, Cook will continue assisting with certain aspects of Apple, including “engaging with policymakers around the world,” the company said in April when it announced his new role.

Part of the reason Cook may stay on at Apple is that during his 15 year tenure, he became a sort of “Trump whisperer” in navigating the company’s relationship with the president. Cook earned the nickname “Trump whisperer” for his ability to strike deals and keep things smooth with the president, as seen through both his tariff negotiations and this year’s CEO transition.

Cook even said he’d continued to manage the company’s relationship with not only Trump but also the Chinese government, according to Bloomberg. Those relationships have become increasingly important to Apple as its sprawling Asian supply chain puts the company in the middle of Trump’s push to use tariffs to bring more manufacturing to the U.S.—and leaves it navigating tensions between Washington and Beijing.

His package won’t be limited to the $2 million annual comp either—he was approved for an equity award with a target value of $45 million, according to a regulatory filing.

Cook leaves the CEO job 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 increasingly navigating government alongside products and operations.

How Tim Cook became the ‘Trump whisperer’

Cook figured out relatively early how to get Trump’s ear.

“He’s the one that calls me,” Trump told reporters in 2019 when he was asked why he had a good relationship with Cook compared with other tech executives. At the time, tariffs were a problem. Trump said Cook had argued that levies on Apple’s China-made products could put the company at a disadvantage against South Korean rival Samsung.

That relationship would be 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. 

But Cook’s access to Trump did not mean 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 its 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 that he didn’t 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, and he arrived 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 has shifted some production away from China, leaving the company exposed to the relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Cook has spent years navigating Apple’s relationship 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, a nod to when he 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” earlier this year in March. “I focus on policy.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com