It’s hard to know exactly what’s going on inside the White House these days. Is Jared Kushner still pouting the corner? Probably. Is Kellyanne Conway still putting her feet on the furniture? Surely. Is Trump still eating Big Macs on silver platters while he tweets from an old, unsecured Android phone? Actually, maybe not.
March 8 was the last time a Donald Trump tweet came from an Android device. Historically, it was easy to tell which tweets his staffers were sending for him, since those would come from an iPhone, while tweets clearly tapped out by Trump himself came from an Android, likely his ancient and very hackable Samsung Galaxy S3. But just four days after the tangerine-topped former reality TV star tweeted his explosive accusation that Obama had been “wire tapping” Trump Tower—sent from an Android device—every tweet on Trump’s account has come from an iPhone.
This doesn’t mean that Trump’s tweets have been any less unhinged. In fact, they look like Trump tweets on creatine, diarrhea side effects and all. Here’s an example from earlier today, sent from an iPhone:
The Guardian hypothesizes that Trump has either upgraded to an iPhone or switched to simply dictating all his tweets, since the style and tenor of the language hasn’t changed. That second scenario certainly seems possible, given that Trump referred to himself in the third person as “Potus” during today’s Twitter rant, something he has never done on the site before. It’s also possible that the Secret Service finally talked Trump into ditching his civilian smartphone since it’s both highly hackable and potentially enables Donald to violate the Presidential Records Act. Regardless, such a long absence of Android-based tweets is unprecedented in Trump’s presidency. Since the election, the longest Trump went without tweeting from his Android phone was four days. In fact, the last Android blackout this long directly preceded the election, lasting from October 20 to November 9.
Again, it’s really hard to comprehend or even verify what’s going on in the Trump White House. Maybe Trump just misplaced his favorite phone, or maybe his tiny fingers got tired of typing. Maybe Trump will start tweeting from his Android again. But let’s hope he doesn’t. Using a hackable device like that inside the White House is a national security threat. Of course, so is President Trump.