Donald Trump finds it 'too inconvenient' to submit his Twitter phone for standard checks meant for security

tech2 News StaffMay 22, 2018 17:39:59 IST

Most if not all of us are aware that US President Donald Trump is quite an active Twitter user, but what we did not know is that all of his tweets come from an iPhone.

US president Donald Trump. AP

As per a report, the US President uses two iPhones for daily use — one meant only for voice calls and another one only for Twitter. As per a report by Politico, the two devices are issued by White House Information Technology and the White House Communications Agency. As you might have guessed, both phones are incapable of doing anything else apart from what they are assigned to do and the GPS on both phones are disabled.

However, according to two senior administration officials, Trump's Twitter phone is not equipped with the security features designed to protect the President from having his smartphone broken into. This is because the President finds it "too inconvenient" to swap his Twitter phone every month for routine support operations, despite his aides advising him to do so.

In comparison, the report stated that Former President Barack Obama handed over his phones every 30 days to be examined by the telecommunications department to check for any suspicious activity.

White House officials refused to comment on the issue but a senior West Wing official speaking to the publication stated that the voice-only device is “seamlessly swapped out on a regular basis through routine support operations. Because of the security controls of the Twitter phone and the Twitter account, it does not necessitate regular change-out.”

When pointed out that the US President's call-capable iPhone has a camera and microphone, unlike the White House-issued cellphones used by Obama, he responded saying that Trump's current phones are inherently more secure than any Obama-era phone because of how much technology has evolved since then.

Apple devices are commonly known to be more secure in comparison to their Android counterparts, but the US President's reluctance to submit to White House security protocols, could, in turn, let hackers try and break into what could be called the most valuable hacking target in the world.