Apple CEO Tim Cook blasts Trump's response to Charlottesville, donates $2.7 million to anti-hate organizations

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo / Getty Images

In an email to Apple employees, CEO Tim Cook denounced the deadly violence in Charlottesville last weekend, criticized President Trump's response and pledged to donate US$2 million (NZ$2.7m) to organizations battling hate groups.

"What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country," the email said, according to BuzzFeed, which obtained a copy.

"Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations. History has taught us this time and time again, both in the United States and countries around the world."

Cook joins a long list of prominent business leaders critical of Trump's response to the throng of white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan and white supremacy groups that stormed into Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a Confederate statue. In the chaos, one woman was killed and several injured when a car, allegedly driven by a rally attendee, sped into a crowd of counterprotesters.

The president has said "many sides" were to blame for the violence. So many prominent business leaders took issue with Trump's position that he was forced to shut down his major business advisory councils after several people resigned.

"We must not witness or permit such hate and bigotry in our country, and we must be unequivocal about it," Cook said in the email.

"I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans."

He said this position was not a matter of politics, but about "human decency and morality."

In light of Charlottesville, Cook said Apple will donate $1 million each to the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center - organizations that track hate groups.

The company will also match "two-for-one" employee donations to these and other human rights groups through the end of September, the email said.

"In an email to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook announces that the company is donating US$1 million (NZ$1.7m) each to the ADL and SPLC.

- Yashar Ali (@yashar) August 17, 2017"

"We've seen the terror of white supremacy & racist violence before. It's a moral issue - an affront to America. We must all stand against it

- Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 14, 2017"

"Heartbreaking scenes in #Charlottesville. Violence and racism have no place in America.

- Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 12, 2017"