President Donald Trump doesn’t have a web browser on his cell phone, according to a New York Times report published Friday.
Because of the absence of one of the most rudimentary applications for a smartphone, Trump receives his daily dose of news from hand-delivered printouts of content from conservative media outlets. He started using an iPhone earlier in the year after originally owning and operating a Samsung Galaxy S3.
Safari, the proprietary web browser for Apple products like the iPhone, can’t be uninstalled, but it can be turned off, meaning it will not show up on the home screen and can’t be opened. Trump could change the settings to his iPhone to make Safari available, but according to Axios, the only app on his phone is Twitter.
Tech writer John Gruber said Sunday that its possible that there could be a passcode restricting Trump from altering the settings on his mobile device and potentially reinstating a web browser. But whether the president would give up that degree of control over his smartphone is not clear. Nevertheless, the decision to only have one operable app may be over hacking concerns, as the president is a natural target for the ever-growing presence of hackers.
Trump’s use and lack of use of technology has been a hot button issue even before he won the 2016 presidential election. Despite some reservations from associates within the White House, Trump often uses Twitter to broadcast his views because of his distrust of much of the American media. His Twitter usage is so controversial that the company didn’t technically rule out the possibility of banning him if he became too unruly.
He also allegedly circumvented traditional security protocol for his electronic communications by originally using two separate cell phones. (RELATED: Democratic Rep. Calls For Official Probe Into Trump’s Unsecured Phone)
One of the mobile devices was his old phone, which reportedly worried some in the federal government due to its potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and the other was the U.S. Secret-Service-approved secure phone, according to an Axios report.
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