Trump’s iPhone Is a Warning Sign - Jonathan Bernstein - Bloomberg

As if we needed another one...The Times recounts his foolishness about his use of an unsecured iPhone.
Unprepared presidents make big mistakes...think Carter and Iran, Reagan and Iran-Contra (trading arms for hostages), GW Bush and Iraq.  We are waiting for Trump's defining debacle. - gwc
Trump’s iPhone Is a Warning Sign - Bloomberg
by Jonathan Bernstein

Sometimes, all it takes is one story to remind us that President Donald Trump, 21 months in, remains wildly unfit for office. 

In this case, it’s Matthew Rosenberg and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times detailing Trump’s persistent use of an unsecured mobile phone. It’s one of those stories in which every paragraph contains a new “wow” – beginning, as usual, with the existence of the story itself. The piece is sourced to “several current and former officials” who talked “out of frustration with what they considered the president’s casual approach to electronic security.” In other words: Apparently nothing else worked, so they’re taking a stab at public pressure.

The revelations in this story? I counted eight blockbusters:

• Trump insists on using his personal iPhone, even after he’s been told that Chinese and Russian intelligence are almost certainly listening in.
• He’s supposed to swap out his official phones every month to provide some security, but he usually doesn’t. 
• He continues using his unsecured phone, apparently, because it allows him to keep his list of contacts. In other words, he’s jeopardizing national security to avoid the minor inconvenience of dialing.
• He also uses the phone to evade having his calls logged by the White House, because he doesn’t want his staff to know who he’s speaking with.
• China is apparently using what it learns by eavesdropping to manipulate Trump’s friends so they can manipulate him.
• Officials think the Russians aren’t bothering to do the same “because of Mr. Trump’s apparent affinity for President Vladimir V. Putin.” 
• Those close to Trump evidently assume that he would blurt out classified information on his unsecured phone.
• Except for one thing: They think he pays so little attention to his briefings that he may not know enough classified information to leak anything important.

I’m not even including the time when Trump left his iPhone behind in a golf cart. Nor am I including the incredible hypocrisy of a president who campaigned on – and still constantly talks about – the information-security practices of his opponent. 

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