Without prejudice for or against the research in question (most may be worthy, but some could be spurious), this is 100% in keeping with his promises to the American people.
Everyone is shocked you’re get exactly what it says on the tin.
My recollection was erroneous, as I can’t (easily) find evidence of them rolling over. But the devices in question still got unlocked, so in the end it didn’t matter whether Apple (openly or surreptitiously) cooperated.
Troubling precedent, but I expect no one used this anyways. Anybody who needs this would be smart enough to know not to trust so proprietary a device and service.
Given how readily Apple has rolled over for law enforcement in the past loudly Apple has opposed working with law enforcement in the past, only for devices to be magically unlocked anyways, this is (probably) just security theater.
All the old consumer goods would fall apart because they’re built to fail and non-repairable, so you’d need to buy new ones anyways.
Take that, Communists!
/s