Donald Trump's penchant for blithely taking calls from reporters to chat, combined with the substandard security measures at his Mar-a-Lago resort, should have intelligence officials on edge.
In a column for iNews, espionage expert Calder Walton, author of "SPIES: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West," wrote that Trump may be the most listened-to president in US history when it comes to foreign intelligence gathering.
Writing that Trump's "unpredictability" has heightened the need to know what is on his mind, Walton claimed that US friends and foes alike are probably listening at every chance they get.
Trump's accessibility to journalists creates an intelligence windfall for foreign powers. His mobile phone number is widely known among the Washington press corps. Journalists have obtained interviews by simply cold-calling. Foreign intelligence services are almost certainly doing the same.
"One can only imagine how many foreign spies are also listening in to his phone conversations," Walton wrote. "Any foreign intelligence service worth its name will have recruited agents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where security is known to be pathetic."
Security at the resort remains a documented vulnerability. As Walton wrote, during Trump's first term, classified documents were found lying around in one of his bathrooms, exposing the inadequacy of document handling procedures.
According to Walton, aside from US foes Russia and China, supposed ally Israel is "almost certainly" listening in on Trump as the war in Iran drags on and the White House response changes from day to day.
"There is, of course, a fundamental difference between intelligence collection by friendly states and hostile regimes," Walton elaborated. "The latter will be using all of the dark arts not just to discover secrets but to influence a target – including espionage, subversion and sabotage."
