> The government absolutely should not be trusted.
You're contradicting yourself.
> So are you.
No I'm not. The keys will be acquired when necessary, if they haven't already.
> If they had the signing key they wouldn't need to ask Apple for anything.
That would be true if the goal was to gather forensic data from a single phone. As I stated above, it's foolish to look at this situation in isolation. The FBI's (and other government agencies) history of trying to restrict encryption and gain access to communication technologies says the government has other goals.
You might have noticed that there has been a propaganda campaign going for a while now that has been framing encryption as a "terrorist tool" that is causing law enforcement's investigations to "go dark". The goal isn't the phone; this is about framing Apple (and Silicon Valley in general) as impediments to public safety.