In a public relations gaffe, leading Republican candidate for this year’s US presidential elections, Donald Trump, called his followers to “boycott Apple” – despite his then latest tweets coming from an iPhone.
Trump made his boycott demand at a campaign event in South Carolina, reports AppleInsider. The boycott, he added, should last “until such time as they give that security number” – a reference to Apple’s defiance, published in an open letter, to help the FBI to bypass the encryption on an iPhone 5C used by Syed Ryzwan Farook, who killed 14 coworkers in a massacre in San Bernardino in December.
BREAKING: Trump calls for Apple boycott until $AAPL turns over info requested by FBI in the San Bernardino case.https://t.co/NBek87Ob6J
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) February 19, 2016
Ironically, Trump’s comments came very shortly after tweeting from an iPhone. Nonetheless, in a later tweet, this time from Twitter’s Web client, Trump said that he would tweet only from Samsung devices until Apple cedes to the FBI’s wishes.
I use both iPhone & Samsung. If Apple doesn't give info to authorities on the terrorists I'll only be using Samsung until they give info.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2016
Meanwhile, in response to the boycott call, a senior Apple executive said that Trump has a history of criticizing “good people”.
Sr. Apple exec, says Trump's call for Apple boycott puts the company in standing with other good people he has criticized – Reuters
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) February 19, 2016
In the open letter on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that, though “we believe the FBI’s intentions are good”, his company is being asked to “take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers”. The order, he insisted, “has implications far beyond the legal case at hand”.