President Donald Trump had difficulty figuring out how to stop his phone from ringing Friday during an Oval Office press conference that was supposed to be about nuclear energy. It’s just the latest reminder that the 78-year-old president has never been great with technology.
Trump was in the middle of talking about the crippling tariffs he’s imposed on goods coming into the U.S.—which have already raised prices on products for many American consumers—when his phone rang during the White House event.
“Oh, it’s a phone call, do you mind?” Trump said jokingly while picking up his iPhone. Trump looked down at his phone and swiped to his right, which is normally how you answer a phone call, not send it to voicemail.
“Okay, it’s only a Congressman,” Trump said with a crooked smile, setting the phone face-down on his desk. One of the reporters in the room appeared to ask “who was it?” and Trump replied “I’d let you know,” but then didn’t let anyone know.
Not even 10 seconds passed before the phone rang again and he picked the phone back up, mouth agape, saying “it’s a different Congressman.” Trump seemed to have more luck silencing his phone on the second try, pushing the side buttons a couple of times in an effort to properly turn the ringer off. Again, Trump didn’t name whoever was calling him.
There’s no evidence that Trump has ever sat down in front of a computer to do proper work (Gizmodo investigated that question back in 2016). Trump is known to dictate his tweets during the day, opting to send them himself late at night. And when Trump was being tried for his many crimes back in 2022, his personal attorney Alina Habba reportedly told a New York court that he doesn’t use email or texts.
“President Trump does not email. He does not text message. And he has no work computer at home or anywhere else,” Habba said, according to CNN. Habba is now serving as the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
Trump lives in a tech-filled world that frequently seems to perplex him at the best of times. While staging a publicity stunt for Elon Musk’s cars at the White House back in March, Trump famously blurted out “everything’s computer” while sitting in a Tesla. Everything is indeed computer, Mr. President, and you seem to struggle with those.
Trump has also spoken in an extremely awkward fashion about cryptocurrencies, especially back when he was against things like bitcoin. The president changed his tune as soon as he figured out it could help make him literally billions of dollars, according to CBS News. And Trump even hosted a dinner for some of the largest buyers of his own cryptocurrency $TRUMP on Thursday night in one of the most shockingly corrupt moves ever made by a sitting president.
Trump spent the morning threatening a special 25% tariff on Apple for its decision to move production facilities to India rather than the U.S. The president said Friday in the Oval Office that tariff would likely start “at the end of June,” and Trump appeared to suggest that Apple should have no problem with moving factories to the U.S. since everything is automated. A reporter asked how Apple could afford that “at a price in America.”
“A lot of it’s so computerized now. These plants are amazing if you look at them,” Trump said. That, of course, contradicts the ostensible reason for Trump’s insistence that companies need to move to American shores. He says it’s all about jobs, when in reality it seems to be rooted in his fundamental misunderstandings about how modern economies work. All Trump cares about is trade deficits, and constantly refers to any trade deficit as a cash handout to other countries, which they obviously aren’t.
Trump was frustrated with Apple CEO Tim Cook, saying that he had an “understanding” about bringing his plants to the U.S. rather than moving them from China to India. “I said, that’s okay to go to India, but you’re not going to sell into here without tariffs. And that’s what it is,” Trump said.
Maybe if Trump was nicer to Cook (and God knows that Big Tech guys like him tried to buy their way in to this administration), the Apple CEO could help the president figure out how to silence his phone during important meetings.
