Enlarge (credit: Screengrab via YouTube )
This weekend, as news of a ballistic missile launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) reached President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Trump got on his phone, and Abe consulted with staff. This didn’t happen behind closed doors, however; it took place as members of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Club watched on in the resort’s dining room. One club member even posed for photos with Trump’s aide-de-camp—the Air Force major carrying the president’s “nuclear football”—and posted pics of the scrum around Trump’s table on Facebook.
Trump is comfortable conducting business over a meal. Last month, Trump approved a raid by US Navy SEALs in Yemen on an Al Qaeda compound not after a briefing in the White House situation room but rather over dinner with senior officials. These and other details of how the new president and his administration operate suggest that despite hitting Hillary Clinton hard for her security foibles, the Trump White House is not big on operational security (opsec).
President Trump may not be making phone calls on his old, vulnerable Android device, but he keeps it close at hand. He regularly posts to Twitter from his Samsung phone based on his Twitter metadata. And we know he’s using an unsecured Android device because the secure one he’s been issued wouldn’t even allow Twitter to be installed.