August 28, 2025

Hold on to your phones! Apple’s new iOS 26 update, coming this September, is stirring up a political storm in the US. Why? Because its new text message spam filters might hide important Republican campaign texts from voters. Imagine your iPhone pushing political help and fundraising texts into an “unknown senders” folder — messages from numbers not saved in your contacts won’t buzz you anymore but quietly sit forgotten. According to a July 2024 memo from the powerful National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), this change could cost the GOP over $25 million in lost fundraising. That’s a massive hit, especially when Republicans lean heavily on texting to reach voters and raise funds. The NRSC warns that most iPhone users won’t check their unknown senders folder, making key money-raising texts and Get Out The Vote (GOTV) alerts likely to go unseen. Sean Dollman, who runs American Made Media Company, the parent firm behind Trump’s 2024 digital campaign team Launchpad Strategies, reacted sharply. He told Fox News Digital, “It’s no surprise that Big Tech wants to stop Donald Trump and other Republicans from communicating with people, because they’ve tried every other method to interfere already. Big Tech has suppressed him, suspended him, and banned him outright. And now they’re trying to make it so he can’t text anybody either. But MAGA won’t be stopped, and MAGA will always find a way.” Launchpad Strategies is no small player — it raised a whopping $509 million for Trump’s 2024 campaign alone, plus another $18 million from 40 other Republican clients during this election year. Apart from the text filters, Apple’s update will also add a call screening feature where calls from unknown numbers will have to explain themselves before you pick up. The timing of this update is spicy! With the midterms just months away, Republicans rely on texting twice as much as Democrats. Screenshots of recent Trump texts show a clever push to get supporters to save his number or reply directly, creating a direct line of communication. Messages read like personal chats: “From Trump: Did you save my number yet?” or “Download the Trump Contact Card to add me to your address book.” Some even ask, “If you had 5 minutes with me, what would you say? No links. I just want your reply below.” This personal touch is at risk of vanishing behind Apple’s filters. This isn’t the first time tech giants have caused headaches for Republicans. In 2022, a study showed Gmail’s spam filters flagged over two-thirds of Republican emails as spam, costing them billions in lost donations. The GOP claims Gmail’s filtering led to nearly $2 billion in lost fundraising from 2019 to 2022, with $1.5 billion lost in 2020 alone. So, is Apple’s move just another tech hurdle designed to slow down Republicans, or a genuine user privacy step? One thing’s sure: The battle over messages, money, and midterm power is heating up — right in your phone!

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Tags: Apple ios 26, Republican fundraising, Text message filters, National republican senatorial committee, Launchpad strategies, Trump 2024 campaign,