Donald Trump has strongly criticized the UK’s attempt to force Apple to weaken its most secure cloud storage protections, likening the demand to intrusive surveillance tactics commonly associated with China.
Speaking to the Spectator magazine after meeting British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the US president disclosed his opposition to the UK government’s stance. “You can’t do this,” he said he told Starmer, emphasizing his disapproval of the requirement.
Apple recently made headlines by pulling its Advanced Data Protection system for iCloud from the UK market rather than comply with legal obligations that would have required the company to create a vulnerability or “back door” for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The demand came in the form of a “technical capability notice” under the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which mandates companies to provide authorities access to encrypted data—even if they are unable to access it themselves. Due to legal constraints, companies served with such orders are not allowed to disclose them publicly.
Reaffirming his stance, Trump told the Spectator, “We actually told [Starmer] . . . that’s incredible. That’s something, you know, that you hear about with China.”
A spokesperson for Downing Street declined to address the specifics of Apple’s case but stressed that the UK maintains a strong intelligence-sharing partnership with the United States and values that relationship.
Concerns over the UK’s approach to encryption extend beyond Apple. US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has expressed serious objections, calling any attempt to compel Apple to create security weaknesses an “egregious violation” of privacy. She confirmed that legal and intelligence teams were assessing the implications of the UK’s policy.
The IPA, which was recently strengthened, allows the UK government to compel tech companies to bypass encryption to assist in criminal and national security investigations. Critics, who have long referred to it as the “Snooper’s Charter,” argue that such powers threaten global privacy and data security, particularly for users outside the UK.
Meanwhile, UK officials defend the law as necessary for combatting serious crimes such as terrorism and child exploitation, pointing to the increasing use of end-to-end encryption in consumer technology as a challenge for law enforcement.