Apple CEO Tim Cook is letting politics destroy his legacy

What responsibility do you have to speak up about bad things happening in the world? Does that responsibility change when speaking up might affect your business? What about if you’re a sports creator, or the moderator of a deeply NSFW subreddit? What about if you’re just a little ol’ phone website? Ultimately, everyone has to make those decisions for themselves. But decisions have consequences.

On this episode of The Vergecast, David and Nilay start by talking about The Verge’s coverage of Alex Pretti’s killing and the ICE occupation of Minneapolis. Yes, there are plenty of tech angles to the story, but also: at some point, you build a big platform so that you can use it when the time comes. And to us, like so many others, this felt like the time.

Then the hosts turn to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who last weekend attended a screening of the Melania documentary at the White House. Cook’s actions, and a photo he took with director Brett Ratner, inspired a lot of backlash over the last few days. So we ask: how much are we allowed to be mad at Cook, or any of the other CEOs capitulating to the Trump administration? And how has this changed the way Cook will be remembered?

After that, it’s time for some gadget news. The hosts discuss the outrageous price for Samsung’s outrageous foldable, and wonder what it means that Samsung didn’t ship review units ahead of the Z Trifold’s launch. (Let’s just say it does not inspire confidence.) There’s also some news about Google’s Aluminium OS, an update on Moltbot — which has already changed its name again since we recorded — and more.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on Minneapolis:

And in the lightning round: