• Sahib Khan, a long-time Apple veteran, will take over for COO Jeff Williams who announced his coming retirement next month. Khan has served under Williams for six years, managing the tech giant’s supply chain and logistics. 

Apple named a new operational czar after longtime chief operating officer Jeff Wiliams announced his impending retirement Tuesday. The company promoted Sahib Khan to Williams’ role in what it called a “long planned succession.” 

Khan, a 30-year Apple veteran, is rising to COO at a pivotal time for the company. President Donald Trump’s trade policies have significantly impacted Apple’s global supply chain and manufacturing operations. Trump-led tariffs on China and other countries where Apple products are manufactured have added a financial strain to the company. As a result, the business has been actively diversifying its supply chain, shifting some production out of China to countries like India and Vietnam to mitigate tariff impacts. All the while, Trump has called on Apple to move its manufacturing operations into the United States, threatening 25% tariffs on their products should it not comply. Apple has since pledged $500 billion in investments to expand its U.S. facilities.

Aside from global trade wars, Khan’s promotion comes after one of the company’s AI darlings was poached by Meta. Ruoming Pang, head of the foundation models team at Apple, will reportedly be joining Mark Zuckerberg in a major setback for Apple, which has already demonstrated difficulty competing with its peers in the AI race. 

Despite global pressures on the company, Apple appears confident in Khan’s ability to weather the current business climate’s enumerable challenges. 

“Sabih is a brilliant strategist who has been one of the central architects of Apple’s supply chain,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a company press release. “While overseeing Apple’s supply chain, he has helped pioneer new technologies in advanced manufacturing, overseen the expansion of Apple’s manufacturing footprint in the United States, and helped ensure that Apple can be nimble in response to global challenges. He has advanced our ambitious efforts in environmental sustainability, helping reduce Apple’s carbon footprint by more than 60%.” 

Wall Street tech analyst Dan Ives expressed similar confidence in Khan’s promotion. “We believe Sabih is the right choice and an integral part of the Apple growth strategy,” he told Fortune in a written statement, noting that the “Trump tariff black cloud” involving China and India will be an issue Khan will have to tackle. 

Khan, who joined Apple in 1995, is currently the senior vice president of operations. Originally from Uttar Pradesh, India, Khan’s educational background is in mechanical engineering and economics. He received bachelor’s degrees in economics and mechanical engineering from Tufts University and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to joining Apple, Khan started his career as an engineer at GE Plastics. 

Since 2019, Khan has overseen Apple’s global supply chain and ensured product quality. Khan’s responsibilities also include managing Apple’s planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and product-fulfillment duties, and the company’s supplier responsibility programs that “protect and educate workers at production facilities around the world.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Courtesy Apple

• New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s success has billionaires and business leaders gearing up to support Mayor Eric Adams. After Andrew Cuomo’s primary defeat, they see him as the next-best alternative in the city’s upcoming election, and they’re throwing him elite fundraising events.  

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Party primary win against former governor Andrew Cuomo sent the city’s business community into a tizzy. Now the überwealthy and New York’s real estate scene are rallying around a not-so-new candidate: Mayor Eric Adams. 

Several billionaires and moguls have thrown their support behind the scandal-laden mayor in their latest attempt to thwart Mamdani, including Bill Ackman. The hedge fund manager endorsed Adams on X, pitching him as someone prepared to take on the popular democratic socialist candidate. Meanwhile, over the July 4 weekend Kenneth and Maria Fishel, the couple behind a New York real estate empire and the firm Renaissance Properties, cohosted an Adams fundraiser in the Hamptons. The Fishels were joined by billionaires John and Margo Catsimatidis, and real estate investor Jared Epstein, among others in attendance. 

“This is about keeping New York vibrant, keeping it free from socialism, and keeping it safe,” Kenneth Fishel told Fortune about his fundraiser. The event at his Hamptons home, he said, counted more than 100 guests from all sectors of business and industry. Although the exact amount raised at the party hasn’t been tallied up yet, said Fishel, he predicts the event will ultimately bring millions to the Adams campaign. 

“It was a great day,” Todd Shapiro, publicist for the Adams campaign, told Fortune. “The mayor felt it was one of the best fundraisers he’s had.”

Since the event, Fishel said fellow business and real estate leaders have told him they plan to follow his lead with similar events in support of Adams. They support the mayor’s policies on housing, zoning, capitalism, and public safety that they see as favorable. These industry titans are particularly concerned by Mamdani’s plans to freeze rents on rent-stabilized apartments, and increase income and corporate taxes. As for Adams, he has voiced opposition to significantly raising corporate taxes and supports streamlining the housing development approval process to create more affordable and regular housing. 

Marc Holliday, chief executive of the New York–based real estate investment trust SL Green Realty, is reportedly throwing an Adams fundraiser on Wednesday with dozens of New York’s real estate elite in attendance. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that attendees paid around $2,000 to join the festivities. Shapiro confirmed these details to Fortune.

Similarly, real estate investor Epstein has his own plans to support Adams’ reelection efforts. Epstein, according to the Journal, has several Adams events planned for August, including a private dinner and campaign events to target younger voters using social media influencers. Shapiro and Epstein confirmed plans for these events to Fortune. He has appeared repeatedly on Fox Business and on social media calling on voters to cast their ballots for Adams. 

“The goal is to open minds, not lecture. I want people to hear from Eric directly, to see and feel his deep love for New York, his understanding of its challenges, and his commitment to all New Yorkers,” Epstein told Fortune. He sees Mamdani’s platform as “neither economically viable nor legally achievable,” pointing to proposed tax hikes and Mamdani’s promise to make buses free.

“I don’t believe in perfection, I believe in leadership. Adams isn’t running on ideology or slogans. He’s making hard decisions, stabilizing the city, and delivering measurable results,” he added.

Alongside his events for younger voters, Epstein said he will be opening his Hamptons home to a small group of influential donors. “These are people who don’t just write checks, they mobilize communities,” he said, but did not name any of these high-profile individuals.

Several other business leaders in the city have opened their wallets to the mayor. An intermediary for Madison Square Garden Entertainment has contributed $29,400 to Adam’s reelection efforts. The company is led by businessman James Dolan, and $18,000 of the businesses’ contributions came from members of the Dolan family. Meanwhile, an intermediary for the Real Estate Board of New York contributed $3,100 on the group’s behalf through several donors. By donating through an intermediary, meaning a go-between organization linking donors with organizations they wish to support, donors receive counsel and administrative support in their contributions and are able to pool larger sums of money from various sources for a specific recipient.

Individual contributors to the Adams campaign have also helped fund his reelection bid. However, their donations are capped at $2,100 per New York campaign finance laws. 

Joseph and Jack Cayre, who run real estate giant Midtown Equities, and their spouses, have donated $8,000 to Adams’s reelection bid. Several members of the Gindi family, which operates Century 21 department stores and the real estate firm Gindi Equities, have also contributed to the candidate, adding more than $10,000 to his war chest. Several thousand in donations were also made by real estate mogul Alexander Rovt and his son Maxwell, who own a large real estate portfolio in New York and overseas.  

Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Marc Holliday, and members of the Cayre, Gindi, and Rovt families did not respond immediately to Fortune requests for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Courtesy of Kenneth Fishel

• Jacalynne Becker Klopp, a border and immigration advisor, has the highest salary in President Trump’s White House. Her nearly quarter-million-dollar annual compensation beats that of several of the most powerful people working in the West Wing.

The highest-paid employee in President Donald Trump’s White House isn’t a familiar name. In fact, little is known about Jacalynne Becker Klopp, the presidential advisor bringing home nearly a quarter of a million dollars annually. Klopp flies so far under the radar that Fortune could not find any publicly available images of her in the federal government archives, despite her long history of public service.

Klopp’s $225,700 federal salary topped the list of White House pay stubs in the executive branch’s 2025 report to Congress revealing West Wing employee wages. The annual report offers insight into the more than 400 staffers on Trump’s payroll. Klopp’s salary tops that of dozens of the president’s innermost circle—including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and “border czar” Tom Homan—by more than $30,000. Klopp’s salary rivals that of current Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who is reportedly earning around $230,000 from her government work. Fortune can confirm that Klopp is in fact earning the maximum amount of money possible, according to the Office of Personnel Management. 

“Jacki is a senior executive that has served in the federal government for over 17 years,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fortune. “She is a dedicated public servant and plays a critical role in the Trump Administration’s success as a top advisor to Border Czar Tom Homan and other officials.”

It’s unclear what, exactly, makes Klopp the most valuable staffer to Trump. In the White House’s report, she is listed simply as an “advisor” with the special designation of detailee, meaning an employee on loan from a federal agency to the White House. Her high salary may be attributed to her status as detailee: Politico notes that staffers on detail may have higher salaries at their home agencies than those allocated for traditional executive staffers. The agency that detailed Klopp to the West Wing is unspecified.

Regardless of her detailee status, several former federal government employees told Fortune that Klopp’s salary appeared unusually high to them. In fact, her salary is more than double the average annual pay at Homeland Security, according to ZipRecruiter’s estimates. And she is earning more than former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas made during President Joe Biden’s administration. 

While few details are available about Klopp’s background and duties, she has a long history working for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Courtesy of Jordan Engel

Klopp, a Florida native, graduated from Tulane University in 2005 with a major in political science, the university’s alumni office confirmed to Fortune. State records indicate she has been registered as a Republican in the Sunshine State since 2000. 

The 42-year-old is married to lobbyist Stephen Klopp, a senior advisor at Ballard Partners, a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, and the former assistant deputy sergeant at arms in the U.S. Senate. His clients, per federal lobbying filings, include the Business Roundtable, Accenture, and ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company). The Klopps appear to live in a multimillion-dollar home in McLean, Va., one of the wealthiest towns in the nation. 

Klopp’s government career, according to LinkedIn, began in 2004 when she spent six months working in the office of the majority whip in the House of Representatives. She then moved on to an unspecified position in the White House Office of Political Affairs in the Bush administration. In August 2005, she moved to the Department of Homeland Security, working first as a confidential assistant in the office of the secretary and then as a special assistant to the secretary until 2009. 

Klopp appears to have left the government from 2009 to 2012, during which time she worked as a consultant at the Sentinel HS Group, a homeland security consultancy with past federal contracts with DHS and the U.S. Border Patrol. 

By 2014, it appears, Klopp rejoined the federal government, working at ICE in enforcement and removal operations (ERO), according to a lawsuit in which she is named as a supervisor. While her exact job title is not clear, Open Payrolls confirms she worked at ICE making just under $139,000 annually in the ERO division until 2016. 

Declassified archived transition team documents from 2016 name Klopp as ERO Operations Support Assistant Director. In this role, she worked under Trump’s current border czar, Tom Homan. Legal filings have her holding the same title in 2019, when she was named in a lawsuit alleging migrant detainee mistreatment at an ICE facility. The suit initially resulted in a preliminary injunction requiring ICE to implement measures like identifying and tracking detainees with COVID-19 risk factors, but was ultimately overturned. As of 2022, Klopp was still listed as an assistant director at ERO. 

While the exact duties Klopp carried out at ICE are unknown, her division, ERO, manages the immigration enforcement process, namely identifying, arresting, detaining, and deporting unauthorized immigrants. ERO operations support, the subsection where Klopp worked, provides the resources and support to execute ERO’s duties by managing the budget, overseeing its finances, managing oversight and compliance, constructing detention facilities, and training staff, among other tasks. During her stint working under Homan at ERO, during President Barack Obama’s second term, the U.S. carried out a record number of deportations. 

Given Klopp’s extensive history at ICE, her duties in the White House are likely part of the Trump administration’s vast immigration crackdown that aims to significantly expand the role and operations of ICE. Trump has repeatedly expressed his support of mass deportations with a goal of at least 3,000 ICE arrests per day. The president previously told Time magazine he wanted to target 15 million people for removal. 

To support these initiatives, President Trump and his administration have sought to increase funding for immigration detention centers and expand ICE resources and personnel. The recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill” allocates $100 billion to ICE and border enforcement through September 2029. The existing annual budget for ICE was approximately $8 billion. The legislation also allocates nearly $29.9 billion for ICE’s deportation and enforcement operations and $45 billion for detention centers.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Courtesy of Jordan Engel