Trump calls for Apple boycott

The call comes as the US demands that Apple unlock the iPhone of a terror suspect.

pawleys island — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called on Friday for a boycott of Apple Inc products until the tech company agreed to help the United States government unlock the cellphone of one of the killers in last year’s San Bernardino, California, shooting.

“Boycott Apple until such time as they give that information,” Trump said at a campaign event in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. “It just occurred to me.”

Trump, front-runner for the Republican nomination ahead of the November 8 presidential election, made the off-the-cuff comment at a town hall-style event at a country club, a day before the state’s nominating contest.

Even as he was still speaking, Trump’s campaign posted on his Twitter handle (@real Donald Trump) from an iPhone, with the timestamp labeled “via Twitter for iPhone.”

Trump later posted on Twitter that he used both an iPhone and a Samsung device.

In response, senior Apple executives, on a call with reporters on Friday, said they felt they were in good company given the other groups and people Trump has criticised in the past. They defended encryption as a way to protect Apple customers’ rights.

“We’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries,” Trump said in a January speech at Liberty University in Virginia.

Apple is resisting US government demands that it unlock an iPhone used by Rizwan Farook, who along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party in San Bernardino last December.—

We’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries”

Donald Trump