The Chinese and Russians are spying on President Trump. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, foreign spies have accessed and eavesdropped on calls from Trump’s personal iPhone.
The president was quick to dismiss these reports as “soooo wrong,” sending out a tweet (likely from his iPhone) insisting that he rarely uses his personal cellphone.
The New York Times has a new Fake Story that now the Russians and Chinese (glad they finally added China) are listening to all of my calls on cellphones. Except that I rarely use a cellphone, & when I do it’s government authorized. I like Hard Lines. Just more made up Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018
But former and current officials within the administration disputed the president’s denial, telling the New York Times they’ve repeatedly had to remind the president not to discuss classified information on his cellphone for this reason. But even in his tweet, the president doesn’t dispute the most troubling fact: China and Russia are listening in on his calls, engaging in espionage, and collecting information from our president that we don’t want them to have.
We already knew the threat of foreign espionage was real. Given past events, this eavesdropping development isn’t surprising. During a news conference in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Trump a soccer ball that may contain a transmitter chip — a listening device. The Department of Justice is still actively investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections. The Chinese, too, are no stranger to instigating vast intelligence operations targeting the U.S. In the past year alone, U.S. authorities arrested and charged a Chinese intelligence officer for theft of technology secrets, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., unknowingly employed a Chinese spy. The Chinese, too, attempted to meddle in our midterm elections, and the U.S. and China are engaged in a large-scale military standoff in the South China Sea.
With access to the president’s cellphone, the Chinese and Russians have an upper hand in these matters and others — militarily, politically, and economically. But personal cellphone access can also allow others to use the microphone, camera, and location information, even when those functionalities aren’t being used. From a national security perspective, possessing this access to the president is dangerous.
From what we know of the tech capabilities they’re using here, the Chinese and Russians could easily create a stronger character profile of the president. If other countries have access to the president’s private calls, they can get intimate insight into his thinking: what arguments he deems compelling and whom he finds persuasive. Of course, we already know the president routinely makes late-night phone calls to Anthony Scaramucci, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and others. But if his personal phone accompanies him into the Oval Office or into other meetings, adversaries certainly have the capability to turn his phone into a camera or microphone. At this point, all we know for certain is that they can and have listened in on his calls, but the potential for damage they could inflict because he insists on hanging on to his iPhone is both extensive and dangerous.
This needless weak link in our armor also weakens the negotiating power we ought to have as a global giant. We’re fighting a trade war with China and a geopolitical battle in the South China Sea. We’re in a near-proxy war in Syria with the Russians. There will be much to negotiate in the coming months, and Trump needs to be in the best bargaining position possible. That can’t happen the way it should if foreign powers have access to our leader’s phone calls and know the intricacies of America’s political secrets.
There must be bipartisan condemnation of Trump’s cavalier attitude toward technology and information security. For conservatives to remain intellectually serious and consistent, we must treat China and Russia’s actual breach of Trump’s cellphone as more problematic than potential breaches of Hillary Clinton’s private email server during her tenure at the State Department. We have to demand he switch up his unnecessary practices.
This is a vital time for the U.S. to fiercely protect our intelligence and political maneuvers. The simplest of breaches can have dire consequences for our military stationed abroad, our economic outlook, and our global stature. In this case, the situation is simple: Trump needs to treat national security with the reverence it deserves — and put down his personal iPhone.
Tyler Grant (@The_Tyler_Grant) is a Young Voices contributor, who completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Taiwan. He also writes movie reviews for the Washington Examiner.
