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 confidants.
China has reportedly been keeping track of the people whom 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 Trump's thinking.
Two of those people who Beijing has identified as frequent Trump contacts are Stephen Schwartzman and Steve Wynn, businessmen and friends whom 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.
None of Trump's three iPhones is 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 cellphone, 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.
jay_alfred_prufrock on October 25th, 2018 at 03:58 UTC »
Sigh... Forget Trump for a second. It is the hypocrisy of Republican voters and legislators that is horrifying. Day after day after day, for the last two years, some scandal comes up and turn a blind eye to it. They will not care about this either.
He didn't release his tax returns, they didn't care. He didn't put his companies in a blind trust, they didn't care. He appointed his unqualified daughter and son in law to key positions and sent them on key trips, some of which turned out quite shady btw, they didn't care. A fuck load of people from his staff was indicted and charged or plead guilty to different crimes, they didn't care. Hundreds of millions of Dollars worth tax evasion scheme was reported just couple of weeks ago (I honestly am not sure how long has passed), his "self-made man" image was shattered to pieces, they didn't care. He skyrocketed the deficit as a result of the tax cut that was primarily given to the richest people in the US, they didn't care. His lies are constantly disproven and they don't care.
Honestly, I can go on like this, especially if I take 5 minutes to use Google for other stuff they didn't care about. But this is just it. They do not care. The Republican voters and legislators have already made their minds up and they do not care about anything about the terrible facts that have or might come out. They just hate Democrats, who they can blame for everything wrong with their lives; despite the fact that Republicans are in power and most of the policy changes that hurt middle and lower income areas came from them.
They do not love their country because time and again it has been proven that Trump does not have the best interest of the country in his heart. Just looking at the unqualified appointments he has made or tried to make should be enough to on its own to make people see this. They love their party, they love having scapegoats that they can use to blame for their own failings. They love the fantasy of yesteryear more than the reality of today and accept that the world is changing.
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.
malcontented on October 24th, 2018 at 22:51 UTC »
Eavesdropping? Putin probably pays his Verizon bill