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Sensitive national-security operations are being conducted in plain view of Mar-a-Lago club members and guests.

Members and guests arrive for a New Year's Eve celebration attended by Donald Trump and his family at the Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, December 31, 2016. (Reuters / Jonathan Ernst)

As President Donald Trump headed to his private resort in Florida this weekendhis second trip in two weeks, and probably not his last this monthethics experts and multiple senators voiced serious concerns about the presidents conducting business in a bustling, elite, members-only club.

Over the past 48 hours, Trump validated those concerns with gold-plated gusto. He hashed out a response to a North Korean missile launch on a busy patio, as people snapped photos and waiters cleared his salad. He hobnobbed with members and visitors at the club, making it clear that paying the $200,000 member fee at Mar-a-Lago was an easy way to parlay with the most powerful man on earth. And passersby were apparently able to get close to classified documents and the presidential limo whenever they pleased.

Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Tom Udall called earlier this month for more transparency during the presidents visits to Mar-a-Lago, and in particular more information about security arrangements. They released a joint statement Monday that said: Now we have unknown and unvetted Mar-a-Lago members looking over the Presidents shoulder as he conducts our foreign policy. This is Americas foreign policy, not this weeks episode of Saturday Night Live. We urge our Republican colleagues to start taking this Administrations rash and unprofessional conduct seriously before there are consequences we all regret.

CNN reported Sunday night that, one hour before Trump was set to dine with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, North Korea launched a ballistic missile 300 miles into the Sea of Japan. Trump and Abe nevertheless sat down in the center of the Mar-a-Lago patio to review the situation and plot their response over dinner as scores of club members watched:

As Mar-a-Lagos wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abes evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.

Trumps National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo. The patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.

Pictures of the bizarre scene quickly began popping up on social media. Instagram user ebain529 posted this on Saturday night, evidently showing National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and senior counselor to the president Stephen Bannon hovering over Trump at a dinner table.

And that was hardly the only time the president made himselfand the working of the US governmentavailable to club members. The president posed for selfies with various guests, including the bridesmaids at a wedding for Carl Lindner IV, an heir to the multibillion-dollar fortune of his late grandfather, a 20th-century mogul and investor who once controlled Chiquita Brands International.

Advisers to the president were also apparently easily accessible. Instagram user katerinacozias posted a photo from brunch at Mar-a-Lago, noting the first lady was also eating there, oh, and of course, Mr. Steve Bannon.

One man even posted a photo alongside the military aide who carries the nuclear football, a briefcase that holds various options for nuclear strikes and launch procedures.

And photos with the presidential limousine, known as The Beast, were also possible.

There are obvious security issues involved herepast presidents usually used a secure SCIF tent to deal with classified national-security information when they were away from the White House, not patio tables at a busy Palm Beach club.

But there are also substantial ethical concerns as well. Trump is essentially selling access to the presidential experience: For $200,000, you, too, can mingle with him and his aides on the weekend, and maybe even take in some key national-security decision-making.

Plenty of presidents had places they go. George W. Bush spent a lot of time on his ranch in Texas, quite famously, said Jordan Libowitz of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. But he wasnt selling membership to his ranch.

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

By design or not, all of the attention is serving to enrich Trump and his interests, from which he has not meaningfully divested. All the reporting, all the cameras, are serving as a free ad from his property, said Libowitz. It raises some serious ethical concerns about whether hes using the presidency for his personal benefit.

As we noted Friday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Senator Tom Udall sent a letter to the White House last month, demanding information on security protocols at Mar-a-Lago and for a full accounting of the membership list and visitor logs for Trumps resort.

This past weekend, aside from Trump and the Japanese prime minister, Treasury-secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin was also at Mar-a-Lago, according to White House readouts. Monday evening, the Senate may vote to confirm Mnuchin, instantly making him one of the most powerful players in the financial worldand no doubt a man many people on Wall Street would love a word with.

CREW also wants the visitor logs released. When there are times when people can be in front of the president, its important for America to know whos paying thousands of dollars for that opportunity.

Reporters who cover the White House have said they have been told to expect another presidential visit to Mar-a-Lago this weekend.

Link:
Donald Trump Is Selling Access to the 'Winter White House' for $200000 - The Nation.

Donald Trump is a television and tabloids kind of guy.

Its easy to see why. Broadcast and publishing platforms helped make him a star. Page Six crowned Trump the unofficial king of New Yorks gossip pages in the 1980s and 1990s. The reality-TV craze of the 2000s ensured he remained a household name.

Today, it has been suggested that you can tell which cable news station Trump is watching by tracking his tweetswhich at times seem to be direct responses to whatevers being said on air. (Often, Fox News.)

Trumps love of television notwithstanding, he is very much a president for the internet ageand not only because, with his infamously trigger-happy Twitter finger, he is making full use of the self-publishing power of the internet.

In fact, Trump has a decades-long presence online.

As a trip through the Internet Archives Wayback Machine reveals, the presidents digital real estate has often appeared as glittery, aspirational, and over-the-top as his offline properties. Its also clear that he appreciated the power of the web to reach people directly relatively early-on.

Its great to be with you on the internet, Trump says in a short video that appeared on his website in 2000, five years before YouTube was founded. Weve worked very hard to make our homepage your homepage, he continues. (This doesnt make sense, exactly, but it does sound hospitable.)

Domain registry records show that Trump.comwhich now directs visitors to the Trump Organizations websitewas first registered in 1997. It was used to promote Trump hotels and casinos soon thereafter. (The first Internet Archive snapshot of the site wasnt captured until 1998, so its not clear when the site first went live.) Trump has also used TrumpOnline.com, DonaldTrump.com, and DonaldJTrump.comthe latter two of which now redirect to his presidential campaign sitefor going-on 20 years.

On all of these websites, from the very beginning, Trump himself has been highly visible. Trump the brand, after all, has always been about Trump the man. Heres a screenshot from his TrumpOnline.com homepage in the early 2000s:

In the early 2000s, Trump also made good use of animated GIFs and Flash video, using the standard software of the era. One particularly garish website intro begins with an animated Trump jet taking off and ends with a huge close-up of Trumps face. (Click here to watch the video with the original audio.)

Trumps site at the time also featured a special message from Donald J. Trump, complete with his signature in gif form: I am pleased to welcome you to TrumpOnline.com, where you will be able to view and interact with the ever-expanding universe of my business interests, including commercial and residential real estate, casino gaming, hotels, model and talent management, beauty pageants, and social and golf clubs. All that you will see share a common theme of excellence, which I am proud to be part of, the letter says.

Over the years, its Trumps business interests that are most visible in his web history.

Deep (and not-so-deep) in the Internet Archive youll find images of Trump brand chocolates and bottled water alongside an offer for the Trump Rewards Visa card, information about his modeling agencyand write-ups on his hotels, casinos, and golf courses.

But Trump has also had websites devoted to his flirtations with the presidency going back to at least 2000, with donaldjtrump2000.com. That site was run by the web master for Jesse Ventura, the professional wrestler and former governor of Minnesota who encouraged Trump to enter politics. Sadly, I found no traces of it in the Internet Archive, but the site lives on in newspaper clippingsin part because it was still online, and possibly soliciting donations, for at least a week after Trump said he was not running for president that year, according to an Associated Press story at the time.

Then there was donaldtrump2008.com, created by a Trump-supporting political action committee in 2006, which featured a short video mashup that made it look like Trump was firing then-President George W. Busha riff on Trumps youre fired catchphrase on the game show, The Apprentice. (Trump was not involved in the making of that website, a Trump spokeswoman told newspapers at the time.)

Even on his own sites, its not clear from web records how much Trump was involved in shaping his early-web presence. But looking at his past websites probably isnt the best way to understand the way he thinks about the web today. Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about computers, and, according to a report by The New York Times, does not use one. (A tweeted photograph of Trump using a laptop was novel enough to prompt a Gizmodo storyHere's a Rare Photo of Donald Trump Using a Computerin November.)

In other words, Trumps early websites are more a reflection of his branding opportunism than an indication of his internet sensibilitiesthough theres plenty of overlap between the two.

If you want clues for how Trump thinks about the web in 2017, its most instructive to look to his longstanding affinity for broadsheet and cablewhere shouting and exaggerating are stylistic requirements. Trump, a man who lives by the media blitz, as one newspaper put it in 1990, is tailor-made for the crowded, over-the-top, unfiltered, real-timey quality of todays internet. Let me put that another way: Its no surprise that an impulsive man who relishes being at the center of attention is right at home on the mobile-social web.

It turns out that an all-caps tweet from the president of the United States is surreal not only because its unlike any behavior the world has previously seen from a sitting president, but also because its a throwback to the lurid pageantry of Trump-focused headlines in the American gossip rags of the late 20th century.

In 1991, The New York Post saw its mission as reporting what people talk about in elevators and saloons, in language they use in elevators and saloons, said Jerry Nachman, the Posts Twinkie-loving, phrase spouting editor, according to a feature about the Post published in The Los Angeles Times that year. One way it does this is by turning the lives of people such as entrepreneur Donald Trump, Mayor David Dinkins, and hotelier Leona Helmsley into pop caricatures called Donald, David and Leona that New Yorkers can gossip about, detest or admire.

Then: Elevators and saloons. Now: Twitter and Facebook.

In 1999, the newspaper columnist Norman Lockman wrote an essay warning against the inclination to cackle at the pretensions of Donald Trump and the political pundit Pat Buchanan running for president of the United States. The temptation to write them off was terrific, Lockman wrote, But given the American taste for tasteless spectacle, these people are going to change the way we think about national politics. As long as they are on the scene, the media will worship these guys. Whenever slambang personalities vie with issues, do I really have to tell you which will get more media time?

Getting media time has never been a problem for Donald Trump. He became famous at the dawn of the cable news era, and became president at a time of media convergence, in the infancy of the mobile web.

He watches me on CNN probably more than my mom watches me on CNN, Anderson Cooper, the CNN anchor, recently told Seth Meyers in an appearance on Late Night. A Washington Post headline last June put it this way: Donald Trump watches more cable TV than you do. (For what its worth, a Pew study in July found 85 percent of Americans over age 65 often get news from television. Trump is 70 years old.)

Trump is obsessed with the news media, but three decades of news clips prove that the fascination is mutual. (As early as 1985, The Washington Post noted how for all his cultivation of publicity, Trump is surprisingly thin-skinned about the press.) Except today he doesnt have to vie for media time, not that a U.S. president ever would; he seizes it with each tweet.

Theres a strange harmony, given his chaotic ascent in politics, in Trumps rise to power at such a tumultuous moment for the media industry. Observe Trump in the Oval Office, or journalists in shrinking newsrooms, and you get the sense of watching someone navigate, not always gracefully, a world that is coming apart at the seams.

The Donald Trump of the early web may be the same man he is today, but he now occupies a vastly different realm than the one we once knew.

See the article here:
Donald Trump's Lost 1990s Websites - The Atlantic

Two Democratic Senators have questioned the security of Donald Trumps smartphone, three weeks after it was reported that the president was using an unsecured, off-the-shelf Samsung Android device. Senators Claire McCaskill and Tom Carper both of whom serve on the Homeland Security Committee put a list of questions about Trumps phone habits in a letter to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis dated February 9th and released today.

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 doesnt leave a record of what hes 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.

But more of a problem may be Trumps smartphone security. Hackers often target smartphones in an attempt to obtain sensitive, personal information from the user, the letter reads. Security risks associated with the use of an unsecured phone include hackers' ability to access the device to turn on audio recording and camera features, as well as engaging surveillance tools that allow location and other information tracking features, the Senators say. These vulnerabilities are among the reasons why national security agencies discourage the use of personal devices.

The Verge showed last week how hackers could access the messages, microphones, and even cameras of unsecured smartphones, allowing third parties to covertly record information stored on the phone or discussed in its vicinity. Any hackers who used similar methods to break into smartphones in the presidents office could already have seen sensitive information this week, when Trumps aides used their smartphone to illuminate sensitive documents relating to North Koreas recent missile launch.

McCaskill and Carper have given Mattis a deadline of March 9th to issue a reply to their concerns. Its not clear, however, whether the Senators will be able to finally make Trump give up his apparently beloved Android especially if, like Obamas Secret Service-issued BlackBerry, a secure device wouldnt let the president on Twitter.

More here:
Senators question Donald Trump's smartphone security - The Verge

Donald Trump was elected president while employing white supremacist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Now the U.S. executive branch is actively seeking to reduce federal efforts to fight right-wing extremism by removing white supremacist groups from U.S. government countering violent extremism (CVE) programs.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed it would repurpose the Countering Violent Extremism task force to focus only on Islamic extremists, considering renaming it Countering Radical Islamic Extremism or Countering Islamic Extremism.

Its hard not to see the hand of Steve Bannon the White House chief strategist and senior counselor whose close ties to white nationalist and far right-wing groups are well-documentedat play. If the change in the CVE task force is implemented, it would mean that hate groups like the KKK would no longer be subject to federal tracking and monitoring through the multi-agency CVE task force, although individual agencies like the FBI would continue to track domestic terrorism and violence .

Domestic terrorism poses a significant, if not greater , threat than Islamic terrorism . Right-wing extremists have repeatedly lashed out in violent and deadly ways against innocent American citizens. The far right wing was responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, as well as the 2012 shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple and 2015 shooting at a Charleston church. And the FBI has thwarted other, large-scale attacks over the years that would have caused higher casualties . It is critically important that CVE work continue to focus on preventing violent extremism across the political and ideological spectrum. To do otherwise puts Americans at risk.

Right-wing nationalists and white supremacists will continue to feel sanctioned and energized in the face of national leadership that validates their hate and fear and fails to unequivocally condemn hate-based violence. This is because political language by elected leaders matters.

A case in point is Germany: Just decades after the Holocaust, Germans watched in horror as far-right violence set off incidents of swastika graffiti; skinhead youth violence; right-wing terrorist cells bombing and killing immigrants, police officers, and left-wing politicians; and arson attacks against refugee homes. Research showed that arson attacks and other anti-immigrant violence were linked to politicians use of derogatory or threatening language to describe refugees (such as calling them a flood of immigrants) and a general negative public discourse against immigration.

Violence decreased when politicians talked more positively about solutions and opportunities linked to immigration. Clearly, political speech can legitimize violence and hate, but political leaders can also create moral barriers that make hate crimes less likely.

In the absence of a president who will use his words to try to bring Americans back together, other political leaders need to have a stronger voice and commit to combating extremism. The German experiencenow the broadest and most comprehensive strategy to combat the far right globallyalso shows that effectively fighting extremism requires the involvement of all levels of government and civil society. Germany benefited from legal interventions, federal police monitoring and formal school curricula, research centers, and government agencies dedicated to the far right; scores of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations; and an extensive community network of far-right advisors in small towns and neighborhoods throughout the country.

Germanys official civic education centers and hundreds of NGOs are subsidized by local and federal government to educate the public about how Germanys democratic society works and how tolerance and mutual understanding lead to a safer, conflict-free environment. Theyre based on the belief that only a well-informed and educated citizen can make responsible decisions.

This specific form of civic educationnot to be confused with patriotic educationis alien to many Western countries, which usually opt to teach basic knowledge about political culture and democratic institutions but not how democracy should be practiced in daily life.

The German model is far from perfect. Efforts to combat the far right in Germany have, at times, been plagued by political divisiveness, competition for funding, and insufficient coordination. The sheer amount of nongovernmental organizations and projects designed to combat the far right is overwhelming, and they could be better utilized in concert with one another.

Neither has Germany solved the problem of far right-wing violence: The current wave of attacks against asylum seekers housing is one of the worst waves of far-right violence in German history. But in the face of violence like this, Germanys political leaders condemn it loudly and clearly. And German schools and communities have structures and resources to turn to for immediate support.

Americansand citizens across the worldhave been mesmerized by the passionate response of millions protesting U.S. policies and practices legitimizing hate and violence. But whats missing in the U.S. is a comprehensive approach that can help coordinate and combat radicalization and racist violence. This is a moment for states and local communities to step up. To move beyond the cycle of protest and despondency in combating racist violence, we can start by looking to Germany.

Daniel Khler directs the German Institute for Radicalization and Deradicalization Studies in Germany, and Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a professor of education and sociology at American University.

See the rest here:
The Most Dangerous National Security Threat That Donald Trump Is Ignoring - Fortune

Wall Street has President Trump's ear.He meets with bankers and financiers at the White House, and he has signed orders indicating that he will accommodate the industry's needs.

Meanwhile, Trump's relationship with the nation's other center of big businesshas been tense, sometimes even hostile. Separated by culture, politics and a long, cross-country flight, Silicon Valley and the new administration have been experiencing compatibility issues.

Thecontrast suggests how the president's connections in business and his experience in real estate could influence his economic policies.

"The tech industry and the Trump administration are talking past each other as opposed to talking to each other," said Venky Ganesan, managing director of Menlo Ventures.

Trump's first three weeks in office have made the difference clear. Hesought to impose a ban on all immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, an action that prompted outrage from Silicon Valley, where manyfirms rely on foreignengineers.

[How Microsoft avoided billions in taxes, and what the GOP says it will do about it]

A few days later, Trumpordered a review ofrestrictionsimposed on the financial sector after the crisis and delayed a rule intended to require retail financial advisers to act in their clients' best interests. Analysts said the actions signaled the White Housewould be friendly toWall Street.

The financial sector is well represented among Trump's cabinet and his advisers.

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, White House senior strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Treasury secretary nominee Steven T. Mnuchin have all worked at Goldman Sachs. So did Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge-fund manager who advised Trump during the campaign. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao spent time at Citi and Bank of America.

The technology sector does have at least one well-placed spokesmanamong Trump's confidantes in billionaire Peter Thiel.

"Peter is, I think, influential with Trump," said economistStephen Moore, who advised the president during the campaign. "Hes, sort of, the point man when it comes to the concerns and needs and so on of these Silicon Valley companies."

Trump also formed an advisory council of corporate leaders after his election, which includes a couple of delegates from Silicon Valley: Tesla's Elon Musk and IBM President Ginni Rometty. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick quit the group last week in response to Trump's immigration order.

Financiers, however, outnumber them on the panel. The group is chaired by Stephen Schwarzman, a founder of the private equity firm Blackstone.

[Trump may be ditching conservatives on one of the issues they care about most]

Other members include Jamie Dimon, the head of J.P. Morgan Chase, and Laurence D. Fink, chairman of the mammoth money manager BlackRock.Patomak Global Partners chief executive Paul Atkins is also on the council -- his firm provides consulting services to the financial sector.

To some degree, the discrepancy is attributable to politics. Anecdotally, there are moreRepublicansworking in Manhattan than inthe Bay Area, and Democrats in the technology industrymade no effort to conceal their distaste for Trump during the campaign.

"Most of the CEOs are pretty hard-core Democrats," Moore said. "You have to search far and wide to find people in Silicon Valley who believe in the things that Trump talkedabout."

Said Ganesan: "The tech industry, during the presidential campaign, was far more vociferous in its opposition and disdain for the Trump candidacy than I think other industries were."

Yet Ganesan, the venture capitalist, argued that the technology sector should find ways of working with Trump.

"Ultimately, both the tech economy and the Trump administration need each other," Ganesan said. "Americas leadership in the world is driven by technology."

Michael Beckerman, the president of the Internet Association -- a lobbying group that represents large technology companies--agreed, predicting that entrepreneurs in technology would eventually find common ground with Trump's administration on areas such as regulation and trade.

U.S. digital exports "can create a competitive amount of economic value and competitiveness in the United States, and thats the exact kind of thing that hes been talking about throughout the campaign," Beckerman said. "Who seems to be getting the love in the first few weeks is not necessarily an indication of the long game of the next four years."

Former commerce secretary William M. Daley, whom President Barack Obama brought on as chief of staff in part to help the him improve his relationships with corporate America, said that Trump's personal relationships probably accounted for some of his apparent preference for bankers.

[Trump said they were getting away with murder. Now they might be getting a tax break.]

"If you take his whole career back to his father, its a pretty closed sort of world," Daley said. "He probably knows every banker, because hes probably tried to borrow from every one of them."

While both New York and San Jose are redoubts of the economic elite, the "whole mindset" of doing business is very different between the two cities, Daley said. He said that Trump probably feels more comfortable in the staid, managerial world of finance, real estate and blue-chip corporations, in contrast to the more unpredictable and entrepreneurial world of computing.

Financiers "want to live in a world thats not as chaotic as the Silicon Valley crowd likes to live in," said Daley, a former J.P. Morgan banker who is now a managing partner at the Swiss hedge fund Argentire Capital. "In the Silicon Valley world, theyre all over the place. Every day is a new game plan."

Daley pointed out that besides Trump's hotel in Las Vegas, his golf resort in Los Angeles and his recently completed Vancouver building, most of his properties are on the East Coast or overseas, limiting his exposure to the technology sector's culture and clout.

"It's partly because Trump is a creature of New York," Moore said. "He's dealt with Wall Street his whole life."

See the original post:
Donald Trump just can't get along with a hugely important American industry - Washington Post