Mr. President, please put down your personal iPhone
President Donald Trump has never been acquainted with the phrase selfcensorship even when he’s on camera in front of the world. One can only imagine what he says to friends during phone conversations that he thinks are private. But the Chinese and Russians probably know because they’re listening in to a private iPhone he uses on such calls, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Trump quickly denied the report, calling it “soooo wrong” on Twitter. “A new Fake Story” says the Russians and Chinese “are listening to all of my calls on cellphones. Except that I rarely use a cellphone," he tweeted from, well, a cellphone.
According to The Times’ report, Trump has two iPhones “altered by the National Security Agency to limit their abilities — and vulnerabilities” and a third personal iPhone without alterations, on which he can store contacts. None of the three is fully secure. He uses the phones when he doesn’t want calls going through the White House switchboard. NBC News confirmed that unidentified U.S. officials said they are concerned about the president’s unsecured phone calls.
The biggest worry is, of course, that Trump could let loose classified information. He has been too free with such information before: According to reports, Trump shared details about an Islamic State plot with Russian diplomats in a personal meeting last year in the Oval Office — sensitive information provided by Israel.
Indeed, Trump used to understand the danger of lax security. That’s why candidate Trump attacked his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for using private email accounts on an unsecured private server. His followers said such casual disregard for security made her ripe for a prison sentence, as in the chant “lock her up,” last repeated at a Wednesday night rally.
Both Trump and Clinton have shown exceptionally poor judgment. Trump might consider the gravity of risking the nation’s secrets before he makes that next call.
Even if classified secrets are never discussed, the Chinese and Russians can glean important understanding of Trump, his policies and his thinking just by listening to conversations with intimate advisers, including top business leaders with interests in China. Moreover, cellphones have other vulnerabilities that can allow their cameras and microphones to be compromised, location data to be shared and passwords to be stolen.
According to The Times’ report, the Chinese are combining what they hear with knowledge about Trump’s friends and advisers to try to influence administration policy on such things as the president’s trade war with China, which began when Trump recently placed $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese products.
Eavesdropping has long been an important espionage tool, used by the United States and its foes. The Obama administration was embarrassed when documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 showed that America was listening to the calls of a staunch ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Cellphone calls are easy to intercept, something major spy agencies know and one reason foreign leaders, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, stay away from them.
This is one case where it wouldn’t hurt America for Trump to emulate the foreign despots he so admires.