Trump attacks Apple in push to weaken encryption

The president's remarks come after the Justice Department publicly called for the tech giant to help unlock a gunman's iPhones.

President Donald Trump weighed in Tuesday on a reignited battle over encryption, calling out Apple for refusing to create backdoors that would help law enforcement agencies unlock iPhones. 

Just a day after the Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr criticized the tech giant for a lack of "substantive help" in its investigation of a deadly shooting at a Florida Naval base, the president is now adding to the pressure on Apple.

In a tweet Tuesday, Trump wrote, "We are helping Apple all of the time on TRADE and so many other issues, and yet they refuse to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements."

He called for Apple to "step up to the plate" and help the US government in its investigation.


Apple declined to comment on Trump's remarks. On Monday, the company said it rejected the Justice Department's characterization that it hasn't been helping with the investigation.

The company said it's provided the FBI information on the gunman's iPhone, including account information, iCloud backups and transactional data for several accounts associated with the device. 

Apple also said that it didn't receive requests about a second iPhone in the investigation until Jan. 8. While it's able to provide all that data for investigations, Apple remains steadfast that it won't create a backdoor to encryption to help with investigations. 

"We have always maintained there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys," Apple said in a statement sent Monday. "Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers."