Worries over Trump's smartphone continue
Top Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee are worried President Trump is still using an outdated, vulnerable Android smartphone.
Leading Democrats on a Senate committee are asking questions about the security of President Trump's personal smartphone.
Although reports had indicated that President Donald Trump had given up his potentially leaky Android smartphone in favor of an encrypted Secret Service phone, top Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs aren't so sure he has.
They want written confirmation the president knows about the Secret Service phone.
In a Feb. 9 letter to Department of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, committee Ranking Member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and member Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), said they had "serious security concerns related to President Trump's reported use of a personal, unofficial smartphone."
Citing numerous late January news reports from sources such as the New York Times, Politico and the Associated Press noting the president was still using the Android phone, the senators asked Mattis to provide written confirmation by March 9 that the president had received an encrypted Secret Service smartphone and that he is using it.
They also asked that the Defense Information Systems Agency and the White House Communications Agency oversee, develop and implement protective measures for the president's use of a personal smartphone.
Tight smartphone security would seem to be a necessary precaution as President Trump is reportedly using the device to hone foreign policy in public places.
CNN reported he used his phone in a meeting at a Saturday night dinner gathering at Mar-a-Lago sitting next to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
When news of a North Korean test launch of a medium-range ballistic missile came through, the CNN report said the president "took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area."
Trump and members of his national security team, seated on an outdoor patio, reviewed documents apparently related to the missile launch. Some of the activity, including Trump staffers using cellphone flashlights to illuminate documents, was captured by a club member and posted to Facebook.