Trump criticized the tech industry several times before

Nov 9, 2016 12:42 GMT  ·  By

Donald Trump is the new President of the United States even though only a few people actually expected this to happen, and now many people involved in the tech field are wondering how the government’s relationship with large technology companies can change over the course of the next four years.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump becoming President of the United States isn’t quite the best news for Silicon Valley, mostly because the Republican criticized tech companies several times for building products overseas, as is the case of Apple and its iPhone.

The San Bernardino saga

Furthermore, Trump had often condemned the likes of Apple and Microsoft for not working closely with the US government in a number of very controversial cases, such as the San Bernardino iPhone when the FBI requested Apple to break into the phone used by one of the December 2015 shooters.

Although Apple strongly opposed to the request and pledged to offer full privacy to its customers, no matter who they were, several government officials blasted the firm, saying that it puts the national security at risk by protecting terrorists. Trump was obviously one of the main critics, pointing out with pretty harsh words that if he were to be the President, Apple would not be allowed to do such a thing.

“Who do they think they are? They have to open it up,” Trump said. “I think security, overall, we have to open it up and we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense.”

Donald Trump, however, owns Apple stock worth millions of dollars, but this hasn’t stopped him from calling a boycott of products manufactured by the Cupertino firm.

The Apple boycott and backdoors

“Apple ought to give the security for that phone, OK? I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number,” he said, adding: “I just thought of it. Boycott Apple,” he said.

Oddly enough, Trump also turned to the Internet to condemn Apple for its refusal to break into the terrorist’s phone, but tweeted the harsh words with an iPhone.

It’s not a secret that tech giants supported each other in the fight against the US government, and some made decisions that directly impacted Trump.

Microsoft, for example, refused to support the Republican National Convention with a cash donation earlier this year, choosing instead to contribute with technology. Several organizations requested other companies, including Apple and Google, to follow Microsoft’s lead, and it goes without saying that Donald Trump has no reason to be pleased with it.

And last but not least, Donald Trump said several times during the presidential race that he wanted American companies to focus on American facilities and employing American workforce, and with the likes of Microsoft, Google, Apple and others having thousands of employees overseas, it’ll be interesting to see how this relationship develops.

Donald Trump has promised in his speech this morning that he’ll be the president of every American and will fight “to make America great again.” Tech companies headquartered in the US have been saying pretty much the same thing with other words for a while now, but a dispute between the two sides is just a matter of time, especially after January when Donald Trump officially becomes the President of the United States.