Trump Calls For Apple to Unlock IPhones of Florida Terrorist

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg News

A row of Apple Inc. iPhone 11 smartphones stand on display inside the Regent Street Apple store during a product launch event in London, U.K., on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. Apple's new iPhones with camera enhancements and improved battery life go on sale today. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump called for Apple Inc. to “step up to the plate” and suggested the company unlock iPhones used by the terrorist behind the Dec. 6 attack on a Florida Navy base.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. government helps Apple on trade and other issues, so in return, the Cupertino, California-based technology giant should unlock phones used by “criminal elements.”

Apple has refused to build a backdoor to unlock an iPhone 5 and iPhone 7 belonging to the Florida shooter, but it has said it has provided the government with lots of information from cloud-based backups of the devices.

The government doesn’t need Apple to break into and analyze the phones and can instead use third-party tools, Bloomberg News reported earlier Tuesday. One tool to simplify this process was updated on Tuesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Gurman in Los Angeles at mgurman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr