Chinese, Russian spies reportedly monitor Trump’s iPhone conversations

The US could suffer a major security breach due to President Donald Trump’s “casual approach to electronic security” and constant refusal to communicate securely via the approved White House landline, writes The New York Times.

“The calls made from the phones are intercepted as they travel through the cell towers, cables and switches that make up national and international cellphone networks,” the newspaper wrote.

According to the Times, Trump will simply not give up on his three iPhones, which the American intelligence community says are intercepted by Chinese and Russian spies. Aware of the situation, US counterspies can only hope Trump won’t share classified information, as phones are vulnerable systems that foreign government agents can easily intercept.

The president currently has two official iPhones cleared by the secret service and NSA and have limited functions. He also has a personal, fully functional iPhone where he keeps his contacts, according to the report. Chinese and Russian operatives might be listening in to all calls to collect insights they could use to interfere with US politics, business and maybe even elections.

According to US intelligence, foreign operatives want to understand Trump’s behavior, how his mind works and who has influence over him. A list has been compiled of key influencers Trump communicates with on a regular basis. It appears the Russians are not deploying similar sophisticated operations, because Trump and Vladimir Putin are getting along. Unlike Trump, Putin rarely uses cellphones.

Apple has not commented on this topic, but Trump issued a denial via Twitter.

“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,” Trump tweeted. “Except that I rarely use a cellphone, & when I do it’s government authorized. I like Hard Lines.”