Donald Trump’s administration is being accused of jeopardizing national security after a string of high-profile controversies over its handling of sensitive information, with Democrats and independent experts accusing the president of risking new leaks and cyberattacks.

Complaints over Trump’s security practices have piled up since the start of his presidency, with the furor peaking Saturday when Trump took a phone call about a North Korean missile test while sitting in full view of the guests at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.


Trump staffers later that night pored over government documents with cellphone flashlights, a potential security risk as the mobile devices can be hacked to transmit video and images to prying eyes.

And a Mar-a-Lago visitor posted a photo — later deleted — to Facebook that featured and gave a first name for a U.S. military official responsible for holding the black bag containing the country’s nuclear launch codes.

Before this weekend, critics were already raising red flags over Trump tweeting via what’s reportedly an unsecured Android cellphone , a habit that could potentially expose the president to personal tracking — which could even determine where he physically is in a building — or give hackers an entry point into other parts of his phone.

And last week, Trump left a “lockbag” — a secure pouch for transferring intergovernment information that requires restricted access but don’t meet the threshold for classified material — with the key in it sitting on his desk as the press snapped photos of him.

Democrats say Trump has made a series of security missteps, including working on a national security issue Saturday night in plain public view: “This is mind-bogglingly irresponsible,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a senior member of the Intelligence Committee. “Trump threatens national security by letting anyone who pays to get into his club photograph sensitive deliberations.”

Perhaps more important, security experts said, is the overall photo of Trump’s desk with all of the material on it, including the lockbag, which can give foreign intelligence a better window into the wider world that Trump works in.

“It’s against best practices of operational security,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who now runs a private security consulting firm. “The people he surrounds himself with should know better. I don’t see that voice of reason anywhere.”

“Think about the impact an attacker could have if they could access POTUS’s phone microphone, or that of his aides, during key briefings such as the meeting in Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night,” said Mike Murray, a vice president at the mobile security company Lookout.

All presidents have wide latitude when it comes to how they and their staff handle communications, including sensitive materials, and some long-time security experts say Trump’s recent stumbles are gaining more attention only because of who’s responsible for them.

“These same things happen with every president, but we probably notice them more because he’s a different kind of guy,” said Bill Pickle, a former deputy assistant director of the Secret Service who also served as Senate sergeant-at-arms.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump was briefed on the North Korea incident in a secure location at Mar-a-Lago before and after his brief news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The only thing discussed during the dinner — in public view of the dinner guests — was the logistics for the news conference, she said.

Still, experts say foreign intelligence services are scrutinizing every clip and photo for possible insight into the inner workings of the U.S. government. That would include a 27-second video that White House social media director Dan Scavino posted to Twitter on Saturday night that features Trump’s entourage, including the military officer carrying the nuclear codes.

Or the photograph of Trump last week at his Oval Office desk.

Wackrow said both items could provide foreign intelligence officials with useful clues as they try to decipher longer-term patterns for the new and seemingly unpredictable president.

“As much scrutiny as you’re giving those videos, foreign intelligence is doing the exact same thing just to gain a little bit of understanding of this administration,” he said.

The deviations from standard protocol have Democrats particularly livid after Hillary Clinton’s email practices played a role in undermining her campaign — and were a subject of ongoing inquiry by the FBI. Trump himself continually ripped Clinton over her email arrangement, claiming it was criminal, disqualifying for the presidency and likely exposed state secrets to foreign hackers.

Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Tom Carper of Delaware, for example, asked the Defense Department last week to explain Trump’s reported continued use of his personal cellphone.

“While it is important for the president to have the ability to communicate electronically, it is equally important that he does so in a manner that is secure and that ensures the preservation of presidential records,” they wrote. “The national security risks of compromising a smartphone used by a senior government official, such as the President of the United States, are considerable.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Intelligence Committee who pointed out the locked notebook incident on Twitter, said in an interview that he finds the ongoing violations concerning.

“There was a pattern there that sent the message that this is sort of a spontaneous … carelessness to the environment that is not appropriate to the office of the president,” he added. “It’s very clear that people are constantly trying to get at the classified information that the president receives on a daily basis and so you have to behave in a way that recognizes that.”

Ashley Gold contributed to this report.