Donald Trump decided to boycott Apple, then decided not to

By Christian de Looper Published March 14, 2016

Donald Trump is an enigma. While many of us may not understand his decisions, we assume he has at least thought them through. Like the decision to boycott Apple, for example.

When the FBI vs. Apple story broke, it didn’t come as too much of a surprise to see Trump side with the government. Of course, the logical next step for him was to boycott the company that he disagreed with, which is exactly what he did, turning instead to his Samsung phone.

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But what’s the logical next step after that? It can’t possibly be caving and using Apple devices again without realizing that the public can see what device you’re using when you tweet, can it? Of course it can! Like we said, you may not understand Trump, but he certainly knew what he was doing all along.

trump-tweets — Image used with permission by copyright holder

In all seriousness, it seems as though Trump either forgot about his boycott entirely, or simply couldn’t figure out how to use a Samsung device and thought no one would know if he switched back. It’s become clear that typing on a non-iPhone device may prove a challenge for Trump, who has been tweeting many misspellings lately.

The Republican presidential candidate appears to be making a serious effort, but switching phones is just too hard. Besides, he has easier things on his mind — like running the country.

In any case, his snafu does highlight the fact that it can be easy to simply forget about the Apple vs. FBI case. Public awareness on a case like this can be extremely important, especially considering the resulting ramifications. If the FBI gets its way, the iPhone could be open to not only government hacking, but also hacking from other sources, potentially putting all of a user’s data at risk.

Updated on 03-14-2016 by Christian de Looper: Changed image to reflect change from Android to iPhone rather than the other way around.

Christian de Looper

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…

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