Unsecured phone use

Trump slams 'so incorrect' NYT report on unsecured phone use

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO

President Donald Trump on Thursday hit back at a New York Times article about his use of an unsecured iPhone to call friends outside of the White House, labeling the report “so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it.”

“The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cellphone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I only use Government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is soooo wrong!”

The Times reported on Wednesday that despite having access to a secure landline in the White House, Trump frequently uses an iPhone to call friends “to gossip, gripe or solicit their latest take on how he is doing,” exposing him to eavesdropping by Chinese and Russian spies.

“American intelligence reports indicate that Chinese spies are often listening — and putting to use invaluable insights into how to best work the president and affect administration policy,” the Times reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The Times report said that Chinese officials are taking note of the president’s calls in part to determine how Trump is thinking and how best to persuade him so as not to ramp up the ongoing trade war between the two countries.

The president has resisted calls in the past from his advisers to practice better phone security, telling aides that it would be “too inconvenient” to swap the phones he uses to tweet on a more frequent basis, even as he campaigned for president by slamming former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server while in office.

Former President Barack Obama reportedly turned in his White House phones every month for security checks.