--- title: Donald Trump Slams Apple's Refusal to Unlock Shooter's Phone description: Donald Trump criticized Apple on Wednesday for refusing to unlock one of the iPhones belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. canonical: https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-17T15:05:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:15.070Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Slams Apple Over San Bernardino Shooter's Phone og:description: "I agree 100 percent with the courts" og:url: https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt227055d41a5f25a6/69887de3524fc0b38bdf6c9b/donald-trump-apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Beaufort, South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Slams Apple Over San Bernardino Shooter's Phone twitter:description: "I agree 100 percent with the courts" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt227055d41a5f25a6/69887de3524fc0b38bdf6c9b/donald-trump-apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Slams Apple's Refusal to Unlock San Bernardino Shooter's Phone > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The 6 Most Useful iPhone Tricks You Should Know [Watch (HLS stream): The 6 Most Useful iPhone Tricks You Should Know](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zJWidSGQ.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2016-01-27_  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 17, 2016 3:05 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on stage during a campaign event on Feb.16, in Beaufort, S.C. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks on stage during a campaign event on Feb.16, in Beaufort, S.C. Spencer Platt/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 17, 2016 3:05 PM UTC Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump [criticized Apple on Wednesday](http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/17/politics/donald-trump-apple-encryption-debate/) for refusing to unlock one of the iPhones belonging to one of the [San Bernardino shooters](http://time.com/4135917/watch-a-timeline-of-the-san-bernardino-shooting/). “I agree 100% with the courts. In that case, we should open it up,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, according to CNN. Apple is [resisting a federal court order](http://time.com/4227086/tim-cook-apple-ceo-court-order-iphone-encryption-san-bernardino/) demanding that the company help investigators [unlock the encrypted phone](http://time.com/4214931/san-bernardino-fbi-cell-phone/) belonging to the perpetrators of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., that left 14 dead in December. In a letter posted Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that bypassing the security on the phone would make every iPhone more vulnerable to hackers. Trump said the issue was a matter of common sense. “Apple, this is one case, this is a case that certainly we should be able to get into the phone,” he said, according to CNN. “And we should find out what happened, why it happened, and maybe there’s other people involved and we have to do that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Slams Apple's Refusal to Unlock San Bernardino Shooter's Phone","datePublished":"2016-02-17T15:05:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:15.070Z","description":"\"I agree 100 percent with the courts\"","url":"https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt227055d41a5f25a6/69887de3524fc0b38bdf6c9b/donald-trump-apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt227055d41a5f25a6/69887de3524fc0b38bdf6c9b/donald-trump-apple.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Beaufort, South Carolina","caption":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Beaufort, South Carolina","creditText":"Spencer Platt/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/","name":"Donald Trump Slams Apple's Refusal to Unlock San Bernardino Shooter's Phone"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The 6 Most Useful iPhone Tricks You Should Know","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zJWidSGQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-27T15:44:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zJWidSGQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4227163/donald-trump-apple-san-bernardino/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```