To the people inside Apple,
I'm writing this not as a complaint about a product, but as someone who has loved this company for years — and who is now struggling to reconcile that love with what I'm seeing.
I know that most of you who work at Apple didn't sign up for politics. You signed up to build beautiful things, to make technology that empowers people, to be part of something that "thinks different." Many of you probably share my values. Many of you are probably as uncomfortable as I am.
But I need you to know what it looks like from out here.
I watched Apple remove ICEBlock — an app that helped vulnerable people stay safe — because the administration demanded it. I watched Tim Cook donate a million dollars to the inauguration. I watched him present a golden trophy in the Oval Office. And this weekend, while a nurse named Alex Pretti lay dead in Minneapolis — shot by federal agents while trying to help a woman who'd been pushed to the ground — I watched Apple's CEO attend a dinner and movie screening at the White House.
This isn't about left or right. This is about a company that built its identity on "1984" becoming comfortable with power. A company that once told us to "Think Different" now thinking only about tariff exemptions.
Apple has $162 billion in cash. You have more resources than most countries. You have the ability to say "no" — to say "this is too far" — in ways that almost no other company on Earth can. And yet, instead of using that power to protect people, to stand for something, Apple is using it to secure a seat at the table.
I'm not asking you to be reckless. I'm asking you to be brave. The way Apple used to be brave.
I want to feel proud of the devices in my home again. I want to recommend Apple to friends without a knot in my stomach. I want the company back that made me believe technology could be a force for human dignity.
The change has to come from somewhere. Maybe it starts with you — with conversations in your teams, with questions in your town halls, with the quiet courage of people who believe Apple can be better than this.
Because right now, from where I'm standing, it feels like Apple has decided that access to power matters more than the people that power is being used against.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope there's more happening inside than what we see outside. But if there isn't — if this is just who Apple is now — then I need to start making some hard choices about whether I can keep supporting this company.
With respect, and with hope that you'll prove me wrong,
A customer who still wants to believe
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