Moments after AAPL announced on Wednesday that it would not comply with FBI demands to hack into its phone, Donald Trump was already arguing vehemently that Apple should help investigators crack the phone’s encryption system: "To think that Apple won't allow us to get into her cell phone," Trump said on Fox and Friends Wednesday morning. “Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it up."
"Apple, this is one case, this is a case that certainly we should be able to get into the phone," he said. "And we should find out what happened, why it happened, and maybe there's other people involved and we have to do that."
"I agree 100% with the courts," the mogul added. "In that case, we should open it up. I think security over all — we have to open it up, and we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense."
And then, moments ago during a campaign event in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, Trump had an epiphany: "It just occurred to me." His solution: a boycott of Apple Inc products until the tech giant agrees to U.S. government demands that it unlock the cellphone of the San Bernardino killer.
"Boycott Apple until they give up the information," Trump said. "The phone is owned by the government... Tim Cook is looking to do a big number probably to show how liberal he is. Apple should give up."
The billionaire's call to action followed an interview with Bloomberg in which he offered harsh words for Cook.
"Tim Cook is living in the world of the make believe," Trump said Friday in a telephone interview. "I would come down so hard on him -- you have no idea -- his head would be spinning all of the way back to Silicon Valley."
"I think Tim Cook is totally out of line and I think the government should come down on Tim Cook very, very hard," Trump said in the interview Friday. "I think it's a disgrace what he is doing, we're talking about lives, potentially thousands of lives, and we should find out who else was involved in the plot where 14 people were killed."
It was unclear initially it Trump had a specific cell phone company as an alternatives, or if this was all part of a grand marketing ploy by Tim Cook to get Trump's opponents to rush out and purchase iPhones in retaliation. We will keep an eye on channels checks over the next few days for the answer.
But the biggest irony is shown is self-evident in the screengrab of Trump's latest tweet below.
Update: less than an hour later, Trump appears to have realized his error by tweeting from a Google-based platform, the same Google which supports Apple in its fight with the government: