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White House Bans Use of Personal Devices From West Wing (cbsnews.com)
In the wake of damaging reports of a chaotic Trump administration detailed in a new book from Michael Wolff, the White House is instituting new policies on the use of personal cellphones in the West Wing. CBS News reports: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released the following statement on the policy change: "The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration and therefore starting next week the use of all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing. Staff will be able to conduct business on their government-issued devices and continue working hard on behalf of the American people."
Wolff reportedly gained access to the White House where he conducted numerous interviews with staffers on the inner-workings of the Trump campaign and West Wing operations. Sanders told reporters Wednesday that there were about "a dozen" interactions between Wolff and White House officials, which she said took place at Bannon's request. The White House swiftly slammed the book and those who cooperated with Wolff.
Wolff reportedly gained access to the White House where he conducted numerous interviews with staffers on the inner-workings of the Trump campaign and West Wing operations. Sanders told reporters Wednesday that there were about "a dozen" interactions between Wolff and White House officials, which she said took place at Bannon's request. The White House swiftly slammed the book and those who cooperated with Wolff.
Sheesh!
I just wish they'd go ahead and say "live it's saturday night" and end the skit. The joke has gone on long enough. It's old.
Seriously. The thing today where Trump videoconferenced into a WH press briefing when he literally sits 100 feet away from the room was surreal. I was expecting Alec Baldwin to show up at any moment.
Security? How about that personal iPhone Trump runs around tweeting with. Take that away too.
It is correct to ban the devices. Of course it would also be correct to get his impeachment underway, but republicans care less about the good of the country, than they do about the good of their donors. The obstruction continues as they look for ways not to get to the truth, but to suppress it.
As far as Trump ignoring the rules, well is anyone surprised? I'd laugh my arse off if someone managed to own his iPhone and publish a few weeks of audio on the internet, provided it didn't hurt the country too much.
Simply put, Trump keeping an iPhone like this is worse than at the time Hillary having her own server. The reason it is worse is the threat environment is worse now and Trump is a far more appealing target.
Hillary should have known better. Trump _does_ know better. He spent the entire election bitching about it. Security is a real thing. The curious thing is Hillary's server didn't get owned as near as we can tell, while the department server did. It is probably the case of a simple installation run by a non idiot with nothing special being sometimes more secure than an installation used by so many. The private server probably just had a smaller attack surface. That doesn't make it a good idea, since part of it not getting owned is likely luck.
Still Trump has no excuse. He values his ability to tweet instantly more than he values the security of the country. Every tweet he makes should be verified by a couple of lawyers and probably some major staff member just to make sure it doesn't make matters worse, such as his latest tweets saying his "button" was bigger than the other guys and Hillary's aid should be jailed...
...this is as much security theatre as the TSA.
And you fucking know it is.
If it was all fiction Trump would not be so desperate to get it discredited and blocked from sale. I am sure their will be plenty of bullshit in it, but can't be anyworse than the bullshit Trump makes up on a daily basis.
Cheeto himself carries a Samsung phone. He mostly tweets in the relatively early morning and late in the evening. During the day, a staffer with an iphone does his tweeting, which is why those tweets tend to be better composed but also sometimes get contradicted by later statements. Most of the media seems to only consider his late night/early morning tweets as significant.
When Obama took office, he was described as a Blackberry addict but was ultimately given a specially secured Android phone that had been vetted by appropriate agencies. As far as I'm aware, his Orangeness has never given up his personal phone.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
your hard-core Commie works. A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice.
They've been monitoring us for a long time, Mandrake. All cell phones must be crushed. All must learn to play the piano.
Well, it mustn't be that far off if its mere announcement managed to detonate all ties between Trump and Bannon and have the WH sending cease-and-desist letters over the span of a single day.
And the thing is not even out yet. We'll see in a week.
Exactly. This new policy is Trump shutting the barn door after the horse bolted. Wolfe was allowed to record conversations in the White House, which only becomes a problem when your entire staff thinks you're a retard.
Because if I made up stuff about you that was blatantly false, you wouldn't ask me to quit it ? Really ?
I mean, I guess Slander and libel are fine with you.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
Judging by the amount of "fake news" Trump denounces every chance he gets it is kinda suspicious this book triggered him enough to file lawsuits...
You know what would be very interesting? Given Trump's paranoid tendencies, and his previous experience as a businessman in the very shady real estate industry, he might be recording all his conversations, Nixon-style. _Those_ would make for some very interesting listening. Business executives record their conversations all the time...they're used to being double-crossed.
Banning personal devices might limit recording, but every staffer he fires is going to get a book deal just based on their experience. One of the biggest leaks is the personal use of Twitter. Conversations like, "Mr. President, can you please refrain from telegraphing our foreign policy positions and your disposition to adversaries?" must be hard to have, especially when ignored.
A book by Bannon would have been largely ignored if it wasn't for Trump's tweets and the lawsuit. The way you deal with these kinds of exposés is to ignore them, not give then credibility.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I sort of agree. The POTUS released an official statement about Bannon shortly after the book was announced, for Pete's sake.
Guess there's more truth to it than the WH cares to admit: https://twitter.com/janicemin/...
Links about Trump
Trump's lies:
In 298 days, President Trump has made 1,628 false and misleading claims (Nov. 13, 2017, Washington Post)
In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims. (Dec. 29, 2017, Washington Post)
President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List (Dec. 14, 2017, The New York Times)
10 Falsehoods From Trump's Interview With The Times (Dec. 29, 2017, New York Times)
Trump takes credit for zero aviation deaths worldwide. (Jan. 2, 2018, Trump's Twitter account)
Replies:
"I'm gonna take credit for puppies being cute..."
"Guess who's responsible for designing the cute kangaroo pouches that keep little Joeys safe? That right, it was Me. ME. ME!"
"That's a job well done, thank you, but don't forget I gave dolphins their blowholes! Without me, they would've drowned!"
Sexual abuse:
The 19 Women Who Accused President Trump of Sexual Misconduct (Dec. 7, 2017, The Atlantic.com)
Mental instability:
Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump's New York Times interview is a scary read. (Dec. 30, CNBC) Quotes:
"President Donald Trump tells a string of falsehoods in his recent New York Times interview that make it difficult to tell whether he is lying or delusional."
"Trump appears to suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect, which holds that the least competent people often believe they are the most competent."
"Trump's comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed."
Lawyers 'Telling Trump What He Wants To Hear' So He Won't Fire Mueller (Dec. 31, 2017, Huffingtonpost.com) Quote:
"The president of the United States, in their view, is out of control a good deal of the time..." People who work for Trump have to adjust to his instability.
8 of the Sleaziest Things Donald Trump Has Said (June 16, 2015, 2 1/2 years ago, RollingStone.com)
Choosing weak people to be leaders:
Trump's FCC Chairman pick Ajit Pai heralds a weaker, meeker Commission (Jan. 23, 2017, TechCrunch.com, almost one year ago)
Ajit Pai's FCC is still editing the net neutrality repeal order (Jan 2, 2018, ArsTechnica.com)
Trump picks ghost hunter to be federal judge (Nov. 15 2017, BBC News) Quote:
"The appointment of Brett Talley, 36, for a lifetime post as an Alabama federal judge is raising eyebrows because he has never tried a case."
Profiting personally:
Trump has now spe
So with all the fake news he denounces, you're surprised he would denounce more fake news ?
*puzzled*.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
Every government on Earth is composed entirely of humans. There is no God or Aliens or any kind of higher power that is in any way involved at all.
That means that human nature is the dominating force. All our concepts of justice and what-not are only as good as our implementation of them, because there is no magical force ensuring their strength.
And...human nature is still primarily composed of inclinations towards selfishness, domination, and exploitation. We evolved this nature because we needed it to survive in a violent world. The world has changed a bit, but our instincts have not.
What does this mean? Every single government, without exception, is corrupt. Always has been, always will be. It is *impossible* to purge the corruption, because it is the direct manifestation of our basic instincts.
This does not mean that anarchy is preferable. Governance remains a necessary evil. But the necessity does not in any way mitigate the evil.
The shadow government you speak of doesn't actually lurk in the shadows. It has always been operating in plain daylight. Many people don't know about it just because they don't bother paying attention to such goings-on as industry lobbyists making campaign contributions, industry moguls becoming politicians themselves, politicians being promised lucrative positions once their term is up (inciting them to favor specific industry interests) etc. Our sloth, and our inclination to delude ourselves with optimism about human nature, prompt us to ignore such behavior. So, they don't have to hide it. They get away with it, despite brazen public displays.
You can't take money out of politics. You can't purge the government of corruption. The only thing you can do is keep as bright a spotlight on their behaviors as possible, as that will influence the public's receptivity to their dictates, and hence the level of power they actually hold.
Public accountability is *all we've got*, all we ever will have, and it will never be perfect.
Those are the facts. Now, adapt to them.
My senior policy advisor? I had nothing to do with him.
My campaign chairman? Only with me for a short time.
My national security advisor? A liar.
My foreign policy advisor? He was just a coffee boy.
Don Jr? Fake news!
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
It's even worse; Bannon was officially part of the National Security Council.
Which means he had a security clearance.
Which means he very likely lied to the FBI during vetoing about the Don Jr. / Russia meeting he now acknowledges.
Bannon was on the national security council and had TOP-SECRET clearance. Now Trump says he has lost his mind. Bad judgement.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Up until recently it was a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.3.
If someone wrote a book of fiction about you, you wouldn't try to discredit it and block it from sale, because doing that would mean it is true? I think your logic is flawed.
ummm no, I would be thrilled, give it a half hearted discredit and then later sue their arses off for a large payday. Now if it was embaressing and true, then hell yeah I would do my best to block it.
The administration has been talking about banning personal devices in the White House since at least November. Well before Wolff's book was finished. Mentioning Wolff's wholly unrelated book is at best innapropriate and superfluous, at worst it's politically motivated deception.
Well considering that virtually none of the "Fake News" that Trump denounces is actually, in any way, fake, no I'm not surprised any more when Trump declares something fake news. However, I am surprised that Trump would file suite against Steve Bannon for violating an NDA by talking about what happened during the Trump campaign over what was written in a supposedly "fake news" book.
It should make you wonder why, if the book is fake, Trump is threatening the people who supposedly didn't talk to the author? And why he's threatening to sue them about things they supposedly didn't tell Wolff. I mean if Wollf made it all up, the Trump should only be angry with Wolff, right? So why is he calling for Steve Bannon's head on a platter?
Fanatically anti-fanatical
No. The problem is that Wolfe was the wrong guy. He's a Gossip Columnist who is most famous for lobbing bombs over the transom to see what he can shake up. To that end he will do or say anything. "The Most Loathed Man in Media," even CNN -- hardly a right-wing pillar -- describes him as "pugnacious" and "arrogant." If you were really looking for someone to lay into Trump and credibly dig up the goods to bring him down, Wolff was ABSOLUTELY THE LAST writer you would call. He's a self-absorbed gadfly party-boy more interested in making the news than reporting it. The cause would have been better served had he taken his notes and given them to a real journalist to byline. Whatever important stuff Wolff may have unearthed during his time as "a fly on the wall" at the White House is going to be buried beneath the inevitable exaggerations, un-truths, half-truths, mis-quotes and overall carnival atmosphere that permeates all his work to date.