Tim Cook to Trump: You need to improve citizen customer sat, give US ‘most modern gov in the world’ [Video]

As we reported yesterday, Tim Cook was among the tech executives that sat down with President Donald Trump to discuss modernizing the technology of the United States. While some details of the meeting were known, The White House has since posted a video of the meeting, featuring comments from all tech executives in attendance…

Following comments from people such as Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook proclaimed that the United States should have the “most modern government in the world, and today it doesn’t.” Cook noted that Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner is working to improve the technology infrastructure of the U.S., but that things aren’t quite where they need to be.

I’m Tim Cook from Apple. The U.S. should have the most modern government in the world, and today it doesn’t, and it’s great to see the effort that Jared is putting in in working on things that will pay back in five and 10 and 20 years.

Cook also explained that the services of the government should be measured on how pleased citizens are. Thus, he says that Trump should ask the cabinet how they’re measuring their parts of the government.

The government should be focused on its citizens, and the services of the government should be measured on how pleased the citizens are with receiving those services. That basic premise is not how it’s done today, and so I would really encourage you to ask the Cabinet how they’re measuring their parts of government, and what they’re doing to serve the citizens that they’re meant to do.

Finally, Cook stated that coding should be a requirement in “every public school.” In the past Cook has likened learning coding to learning a foreign language. He also says that the United States has a “huge deficit” in the skills needed today.

Secondly, totally unrelated, but something I feel very passionate about: coding should be a requirement in every public school. We have a huge deficit in the skills that we need today, versus the skills that are there, and we’re trying to do our part or, hopefully, more than our part in doing that. But I think leadership from government is also key.

Following his comments, Trump thanked Cook for all of the work Apple has been doing for jobs in the United States. Trump is likely referring to things such as Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund, and perhaps Foxconn’s rumored manufacturing plant.

The full video can be seen below with Cook speaking at about the 19:00 mark. Also keep an eye out at 8:48 when Kushner passes a note to Cook….