Donald Trump’s vow to continue using Twitter on a regular basis as president put a lot of people on edge. And with good reason. In the two months between Election Day and Inauguration Day, Trump demonstrated that he could cause companies’ stock to crater in just 140 characters, and even caused a union leader who criticized him to get death threats. But it turns out that there’s something even more alarming than the fact Trump can’t seem to stop tweeting. It’s what he’s using to tweet–an unencrypted smartphone.
Since at least February, the Troll-in-Chief has used a Samsung Galaxy.
I use both iPhone & Samsung. If Apple doesn't give info to authorities on the terrorists I'll only be using Samsung until they give info.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2016
However, we were led to believe that he had to give it up just days before his inauguration in favor of a Secret Service-approved encrypted phone. The reason is obvious–if Trump kept his Galaxy, he would have been extremely vulnerable to having his communications intercepted by hostile actors at both home and abroad.
That’s why CNBC’s Steve Kopack got nervous when he noticed that Trump’s threat to send federal troops to Chicago, as well as an earlier tweet rejoicing at Fox News’ ratings during inauguration coverage, appeared to have been sent out from his old, unencrypted phone.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/824081717191438336
As it turned out, the answer to Kopack’s question was yes. The New York Times reported that when Melania went back to Trump Tower with Barron, Trump only had his TV and “his old, unsecured Android phone” to keep him company.
Reportedly, a number of Trump’s own aides are aghast at this, and took the considerable risk of voicing their objections to Trump. We know that Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, Jared Kushner, and Steve Bannon aren’t among them. After all, they have accounts on a private email server of their own.
So let’s see if we’ve got this right. Trump spent the better part of a year kneecapping Hillary Clinton over her email server. And yet, even though he was almost certainly told–not asked–to trade in his Galaxy for a phone that met national security standards, he’s still using his old phone. What’s wrong with this picture?
Indeed, a good argument can be made that this is many times worse than Hillary’s server. After all, there is no evidence that Hillary willfully or knowingly mishandled classified information. In contrast, Trump is still using an unencrypted phone when he was well aware of the risks.
We’ve already seen a number of incredibly reckless, wingnutty, and tone-deaf acts from Trump in the first few days of his presidency. But this may very well be one of the worst things Trump has done in the two years since he launched his bid to buy the presidency, if not the worst. At the very least, it’s far more egregious than his cavalier attitude toward his stratospheric conflicts of interest.
We already knew that Trump was violating the Constitution from the minute that he took office due to his decision to keep taking the proceeds from the Trump Organization’s foreign deals. Well, we may have to add another one to the list. After all, if Trump was told that his Galaxy didn’t pass security muster and is still using it, then he is willfully and recklessly putting our national security in danger with every tweet. If that isn’t an impeachable offense, what is?
Trump’s Twitter addiction may have won him well-deserved ridicule on “Saturday Night Live.” But with this development, it’s no longer a laughing matter.
(featured image courtesy Infowars)
