Back in February, Donald Trump called on his Twitter followers to boycott Apple, because they wouldn’t unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Now Apple is returning the favor, declining to provide funding to the Republican National Convention in July.
According to Politico, the tech company will not be “donating technology or cash to the effort.” This is quite a break from protocol when it comes to Silicon Valley companies and their political spending, which is usually bipartisan. As Politico explains:
While Apple isn’t the most active political player in the nation’s capital, the tech giant previously has backed both parties’ conventions. It provided about $140,000 in MacBooks and other tech tools to the Democratic and Republican events in 2008, according to campaign finance records. Apple sat out the nominating conventions in 2012, the year Democrats opted against accepting corporate contributions.
Apple hasn’t commented publicly on why exactly they’re not providing financial support to the GOP convention. They haven’t announced if they’re supporting the DNC this year or not, either. But they have told Republican leaders privately that they’re withdrawing their support because of Trump and his comments on “women, immigrants and minorities.” Trump’s camp hasn’t commented publicly either, but the GOP convention host committee has provided this terse statement: “We are working with a variety of major tech partners who are focused on being part of the American political process.” This apparently includes Facebook, Google and Microsoft, though we’re still a month away from the convention. Trump could say something between them that gets those sponsors to pull out as well.
(via Politico)