Report: Apple Not Backing GOP Convention At All

There's not a lot of love between Apple and Donald Trump, we wager. The two camps seem to have wildly conflicting views over just about everything—also not helped by the fact that Trump has previously called for a boycott against Apple for the company's refusal to help the FBI unlock the iPhone involved in the San Bernardino shooting last year.

Go figure, then, that Apple isn't too keen to help the GOP or its frontrunner with any technological needs they have. According to a new report from Politico, Apple has indicated to GOP officials that the company will not be supplying the party with any technological items or funding for its upcoming convention in Cleveland, Ohio this July.

And if it sounds weird that a fairly liberal-leaning company like Apple would even consider helping the GOP to begin with, it's actually a fairly common practice for a number of the major tech players. Microsoft, Google and Facebook will all be providing some level of support for the GOP convention, either in the form of donated technological items, funding or, in Google's case, taking on the responsibility of being the official livestream service for the entire event.

And before you accuse any of the companies of leaning too far right, they split their political activity by also participating heavily in the Democratic events, too. As Politico notes, Apple spent around $140,000 backing both Democratic and Republican events back in 2008. It didn't offer any support to either in 2012, as Democrats indicated they didn't want corporate contributions to be a part of the nominating conventions. According to a recent article from The New York Times, other tech players like AT&T and Cisco also split their support between both parties—wanting to further the democratic process in general, the Times notes, as opposed to favoring one party over the other.

Apple isn't the only tech company backing down from supporting the GOP's activities this year. HP indicated in May that it wasn't planning to offer any financial support for the Republican National Convention. Recently, even media companies playing in the tech space have shied away from Republicans. Buzzfeed rejected an advertising campaign from the Republican National Committee, rumored to be worth around $1.3 million or so.

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"We certainly don't like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don't run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won't accept Trump ads for the exact same reason," wrote Buzzfeed CEO and founder Jonah Peretti in a company-wide email.

It remains to be seen what kind of funding and support, if any, Apple might contribute to the Democratic convention, which takes place in late July.