President Donald Trump recently took aim at Intel’s leadership, seeking the immediate resignation of company’s new CEO Lip-Bu Tan citing his “highly conflicted” ties to Chinese firms. This marks a rare instance of a president attempting to dictate who leads a private company, though Trump has a history of publicly voicing his complaints about corporate policies. For example, Elon Musk, who spend hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Trump’s re-election was called ‘crazy’. He even criticised Apple CEO Tim Cook for making US-sold iPhones outside the country. Here’s a list of 5 top CEOs that Trump has publicly criticised.
LIP-BU TAN, CEO, INTEL
In the latest such episode, Trump publicly criticised Intel’s CEO following a report in which it was claimed that Lip-Bu Tan had invested at least $200 million in hundreds of Chinese advanced manufacturing and chip firms. Some of these companies were reportedly linked to the Chinese military.“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.In a statement issued late Thursday, Tan responded to the president’s demand. He said he shared Trump’s commitment to advancing US national and economic security, and added that Intel’s board was “fully supportive of the work we are doing to transform our company.”
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA
The tech billionaire spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support President Trump’s re-election campaign, a move that many investors believed would benefit Musk’s business ventures. However, the relationship between the two soured in early June after Musk publicly criticised the administration’s new tax-cut and spending bill for its projected impact on federal debt.Trump quickly retaliated on his Truth Social platform, threatening to cut federal subsidies and contracts to Musk’s companies and stating that the billionaire “just went CRAZY.” The feud escalated in early July when Trump suggested that the Department of Justice (“DOGE”) should “take a good, hard, look at” Musk’s contracts.
TIM COOK, CEO, APPLE
One of the latest CEOs to face Trump’s ire is Apple’s Tim Cook – mainly for manufacturing iPhones sold in the US in other countries. In May, Trump recalled a meeting with Cook in Doha, where he said he had confronted the Apple CEO about the company’s plans to shift production to India. This conversation took place amid reports that Apple intends to produce most of the iPhones sold in the US at factories in India by the end of 2026.Trump also posted on social media, stating that he had told Cook “long ago” that he expects “their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”In May, Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff on Apple products made overseas. However, earlier this week, Trump announced that Apple would invest an additional $100 billion in the US, raising its total domestic commitment to $600 billion over the next four years.
SUNDAR PICHAI, CEO, GOOGLE AND ALPHABET
Last year, in an interview with Bloomberg, Trump claimed that Google’s search results are “rigged” and biased against him. Trump alleged that the platform prioritises negative stories while making it difficult to find positive ones. He said that he called Google CEO Sundar Pichai. “I called the head of Google the other day and I said, ‘I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them in Google’,” Trump saidAccording to Trump, Pichai responded by telling him that he is “the No. 1 person on all of Google for stories.”When asked if Google should be broken up, Trump acknowledged the company’s power, saying, “They’re very bad to me. Very, very bad to me… I think it’s a whole rigged deal.” He suggested that instead of a full breakup, the company should be made “more fair.”“I’m not a fan of Google,” Trump stated. “They treat me badly. But are you going to destroy the company by doing that? What you do is, without breaking it up, is make sure it’s more fair.”
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, META
Trump has criticised Mark Zuckerberg multiple times.When Trump was president-elect, he threatened to imprison Zuckerberg, writing: “He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.”“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
DOUG MCMILLON, CEO, WALMART
After Walmart CEO Doug McMillon stated that the company couldn’t absorb all tariff-related costs due to thin retail margins, Trump publicly criticised the retailer.“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected,” Trump said in a social media post. While Trump did not name McMillon personally, he publicly slammed Walmart in May for attributing its price hikes to the tariffs imposed by his administration.
