Surprise, surprise: the CEO of Apple apparently disagrees with Donald Trump's call to boycott Apple products.
In a lengthy new interview with Time Magazine about Apple's ongoing fight with the FBI, CEO Tim Cook was asked whether he believes the Republican presidential frontrunner called for a boycott because of a misunderstanding about Apple's position.
"I haven’t talked to him so I don’t know what he thinks," Cook said, according to a transcript of the interview published Thursday.
"The way I look at it is, Apple is this great American company that could have only happened here," Cook continued. "And we see it as our responsibility to stand up on something like this and speak up for all these people that are thinking what we’re thinking but don’t have the voice."
Trump, an iPhone user and one-time Apple shareholder, called for a boycott of Apple products last month in response to the company's decision to refuse to help build a tool for law enforcement to crack into an iPhone 5c belonging to one of the gunman behind the mass shooting in San Bernardino.
The boycott idea seemed to come to Trump spontaneously during a rally.
"What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number," Trump said at an event last month. "How do you like that? I just thought of that. Boycott Apple."
Apple refrained from reacting to Trump in public, though one senior executive was quoted on background as saying that "Apple was in fine company based on other people Trump has attacked," as CNN paraphrased him.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has criticized Apple, Facebook and Amazon, among others. Some, including Cook, reportedly attended a private event earlier this month with Republican legislators, where the subject of Trump's ascent was front and center.
Not all tech CEOs have been as diplomatic as Cook in their public responses to Trump's attacks.
After Trump went after Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos, the technology mogul subtly suggested we launch Trump into space.
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