While rising to our nation’s highest office is an unparalleled honor, becoming President also involves many personal sacrifices. This week, Donald Trump may have made his first, reportedly “trad[ing] in” the Android phone widely believed to be his primary tweeting device for a Secret Service-approved smartphone.
According to a new New York Times report, Trump turned in his main cellphone (previously named as a Samsung Galaxy) this week for a “secure, encrypted device” with a new number.
“The official rationale was security,” reported the Times. “But some of Mr. Trump’s new aides, who have often been blindsided when a reporter, outside adviser or officeseeker dialed the president-elect directly, expressed relief.”
Shortly after the election, the newspaper reported that Trump worried about becoming isolated if his personal Android phone were taken away as part of his transition into the White House. While messages on Donald Trump’s Twitter account come from both Android and iOS devices, the (statistically angrier) Android tweets are thought to be personally written by the President-elect and not staffers.
In 2016, President Obama was forced to make a similar trade, swapping his NSA-enhanced Blackberry for an even more secure, “state-of-the-art” smartphone that lacked the ability to text, take pictures or play music.
“Does your three-year-old have one of those play phones?” Obama later quipped on The Tonight Show. “That’s basically the phone I got.”
To send his first tweet in 2015, Obama had to borrow an iPhone registered to his staff. Trump may now be using a similar scheme to post on the social media site: As recently as Thursday, tweets were still being sent from an Android device to his account.
“Getting ready to leave for Washington, D.C. The journey begins and I will be working and fighting very hard to make it a great journey for..” wrote Trump (via Android) on Twitter Thursday morning, “the American people. I have no doubt that we will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
[NYT]