U.S. spy agencies have determined that Russia and China are eavesdropping on President Trump Donald John TrumpMelania Trump appears to remind president to sign opioid bill before leaving room Sarah Sanders responds to CNN chief's criticism after bomb scare: 'You chose to attack and divide' Five takeaways from Menendez, Hugin's first and only debate MORE's personal phone calls in order to gain information that they can use to influence American policy, according to a New York Times report.
Although Trump's aides have repeatedly warned him that his three personal iPhones are not secure, the president refuses to give them up, the Times reported. He continues to use them to chat with friends and confidantes.
China has reportedly been keeping track of the people who Trump speaks to the most, compiling them into a list of figures to target with pro-Chinese messaging. While Russia's efforts are reportedly less coordinated, they are listening in to conversations in order to seek insight into the U.S. president's thinking.
Two of those people who Beijing has identified as frequent Trump contacts are Stephen Schwartzman and Steve Wynn, businessmen and friends who Trump speaks with regularly, the Times reported. Chinese businessmen have reportedly been deployed to feed strategic messages to both men in the hopes that they will then report pro-Chinese arguments to the president.
A spokeswoman for Schwartzman, who is a chief executive with asset management company Blackstone Group, said he "has been happy to serve as an intermediary on certain critical matters between the two countries at the request of both heads of state."
A lawyer for Wynn, a former casino magnate, said he had no comment.
Trump has three iPhones, none of which are completely secure. Two of them have been made more secure by the National Security Agency, but the third iPhone is no different than any other personal cell phone, the Times reported.
Trump aides told the Times that they hope he does not share confidential information during those phone calls with friends, due to Chinese and Russian spies likely listening in.
The president has reportedly refused to swap out his official phones every 30 days as is typical, citing the inconvenience it causes, the Times reported.
CloneSix on October 25th, 2018 at 00:21 UTC »
Can someone remind me of the thing Trump and all his supporters wanted to throw Clinton in prison for?
TooShiftyForYou on October 24th, 2018 at 23:45 UTC »
They said they had further confidence he was not spilling secrets because he rarely digs into the details of the intelligence he is shown and is not well versed in the operational specifics of military or covert activities.
Thankfully the President is apparently too incompetent to say anything that could be dangerous.
NYT Source
winkelschleifer on October 24th, 2018 at 23:16 UTC »
despite pleas from his staff, he still naively continues to use non-secure communications channels, clearly compromising the US, its security interests and policies.