Trump's Phones

What do Donald Trump and his cellphones have in common?

They're both insecure.

<RIM SHOT!>  

Hey, do you remember how during the 2016 campaign for President, Li’l Donnie Trump would get people all worked over the crimes of Crooked Hillary Clinton to the point he would get crowds to chant “lock her up”. Never mind the campaign, the “lock her up” chant still makes appearances at Trump rallies. 

 

The biggest “crime” was Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, a system that made classified information vulnerable to hacking by hostile actors. Trump called Clinton “the most corrupt person ever to run for president.”

 

Well, get a load of this shit.

 

Trump uses a White House cellphone that isn’t equipped with sophisticated security features designed to shield his communications, a practice of his predecessors.  Not following that practice potentially exposes him to hacking or surveillance. Li’l Donnie has explicitly said “no” to any efforts to upgrade security on his phone use. 

 

Where is the Fox News outrage? Where are the cries to “lock him up”?  

 

Trump uses 2 iPhones issued by White House Information Technology and the White House Communications Agency, an office staffed by military personnel that oversees White House telecommunications. One phone is capable only of making calls, the other equipped only with the Twitter app and preloaded with a handful of news sites.  

 

The president has gone as long as five months without having the Twitter phone checked by security experts. It is unclear how often Trump’s call-capable phones, which are essentially used as burner phones, are swapped out.

 

President Barack Obama handed over his White House phones every 30 days to be examined by telecommunications staffers for hacking and other suspicious activity.  

 

Trump’s call phone has a camera and microphone, unlike the White House-issued cellphones used by Obama. Cameras and microphones are favorite items for phone hackers to get into and track the user’s whereabouts.  At least the GPS location tracker is reportedly disabled on Trump’s devices.

 

One White House official doesn’t think this is a big deal, saying that “Due to inherent capabilities and advancement in technologies, these devices are more secure than any Obama-era devices.”

Man, that sounds like a bullshit answer given by high school student hasn't done their homework.  

 

Trump’s reluctance to submit to White House security protocols that would limit his ability to tweet or contact friends freely would be “inconvenient”, an excuse provided by both Trump and by (wait for it!) Hillary Clinton when she chose not to use separate servers for business and personal emails. 

 

National security officials pretty much agree that cellphones are dangerous when it comes to security.  Here’s what former director of counterterrorism on the National Security Council in the Obama administration Nate Jones has to say about this.  

 

“Foreign adversaries seeking intelligence about the U.S. are relentless in their pursuit of vulnerabilities in our government’s communications networks, and there is no more sought-after intelligence target than the president of the United States.” 

 

While a president has the authority to ignore the advice of aides and advisers for reasons of comfort or convenience, Jones says, “doing so could pose significant risks to the country.”

 

Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly has cracked down on personal cellphone use by White House staff, citing security risks.

 

Trump himself does whatever the fuck he wants.

 

Lock him up? 

 

Cybersecurity experts can’t fucking believe a president wou;ld refuse to take protective measures to defend against hacks. 

 

Here’s what Samm Sacks, a China and technology expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has to say about this.  “It’s baffling that Trump isn’t taking baseline cybersecurity measures at a time when he is trying to negotiate his way out of a trade war with China, a country that is known for using cyber tactics to gain the upper hand in business negotiations.”  

 

Well, “Samm Sacks” (if that is your real name), no, it is not baffling. Li’l Donnie Trump is a petulant man-child who can’t be deprived of his toys or he’ll get all grumpy-wumpy. It’s all about his needs and wants while the security of the nation and his office can go fuck themselves. 

 

Lock him up? 

 

Of course not. The usual hypocrisy is at work here. Violations of security (real or imagined) by Hillary Clinton made her “the most corrupt person ever to run for president.” Trump does similar shit and it’s no big deal.  


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Here is a post from Mark Evanier (my favorite blogging person) on this topic: 


Being a total cynic about Donald Trump means you have to watch a lot of position-shifting…you know, like how when Barack Obama played golf, people who didn't like him would say he was a lousy president because he spent too much time on the links but now they're fine with Trump spending a whole lot more. Or people who chanted "Lock her up!" because Hillary didn't take every possible security procedure don't mind one bit that Trump uses an unsecured cell phone, ignoring his aides' pleas to not do that. This shifting-of-supposed-principles is not new to politics but we've never seen it on quite this scale before.
------Mark Evanier, Tuesday, May 22,2018 at 7:56 AM