Who's listening in?

We keep hearing that Donald Trump is continuing to use his original, unsecured Android smartphone while in the White House. Now Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill and Tom Carper have written a letter to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis asking him to explain what the hell is up with that.

McCaskill and Carper say that the recent reports suggesting that the president may still be using his old device were “troubling” — in part because it doesn’t leave a record of what he’s been saying. “While it is important for the President to have the ability to communicate electronically,” the letter reads, “it is equally important that he does so in a manner that is secure and that ensures the preservation of presidential records.”

The even more obvious problem with using the unsecured phone is, of course, security. Images of Trump staffers holding up smartphones to examine documents about a North Korean missile launch immediately caused consternation among those who wondered whether holding up devices with attached digital cameras and pointing them directly at presumably sensitive paperwork was, well, stupid. With the ease with which unsecured phones can be hacked by competent non-state hackers, if Donald Trump is walking around the Oval Office with an unsecured phone on his desk or in his pocket it's essentially acting as a microphone. The White House might not be keeping track of Trump's conversations—but somebody else might be.