WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has been handing out his cellphone number to world leaders and urging them to call him directly, an unusual invitation that breaks diplomatic protocol and is raising concerns about the security and secrecy of the US commander in chief’s communications.
Trump has urged leaders of Canada and Mexico to reach him on his cellphone, according to former and current US officials with direct knowledge of the practice. Of the two, only Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken advantage of the offer so far, the officials said.
Trump also exchanged numbers with French President Emmanuel Macron when the two spoke immediately following Macron’s victory earlier this month, according to a French official, who would not comment on whether Macron intended to use the line.
All the officials demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the conversations. Neither the White House nor Trudeau’s office responded to requests for comment.
The notion of world leaders calling each other up via cellphone may seem unremarkable in the modern, mobile world. But in the diplomatic arena, where leader-to-leader calls are highly orchestrated affairs, it is another notable breach of protocol for a president who has expressed distrust of official channels. The formalities and discipline of diplomacy have been a rough fit for Trump — who, before taking office, was long easily accessible by cellphone and viewed himself as freewheeling, impulsive dealmaker.
Presidents generally place calls on one of several secure phone lines, including those in the White House Situation Room, the Oval Office or the presidential limousine. Even if Trump uses his government-issued cellphone, his calls are vulnerable to eavesdropping, particularly from foreign governments, national security experts say.
“If you are speaking on an open line, then it’s an open line, meaning those who have the ability to monitor those conversations are doing so,” said Derek Chollet, a former Pentagon adviser and National Security Council official now at the German Marshall Fund of the US.
A president “doesn’t carry with him a secure phone,” Chollet said. “If someone is trying to spy on you, then everything you’re saying, you have to presume that others are listening to it.”
The caution is warranted even when dealing with allies. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s learned in 2013, when a dump of American secrets leaked by Edward Snowden revealed the US was monitoring her cellphone, good relations don’t prevent some spycraft between friends.
“If you are Macron or the leader of any country and you get the cellphone number of the US president, it’s reasonable to assume that they’d hand it right over to their intel service,” said Ashley Deeks, a law professor at the University of Virginia who formerly served as the assistant legal adviser for political-military affairs in the US State Department.
The practice opens Trump up to charges of hypocrisy. Throughout last year’s presidential campaign, he lambasted Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for using a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state, insisting she should not be given access to classified information because she would leave it vulnerable to foreign foes.
Presidents’ phone calls with world leaders often involve considerable advance planning. State Department and National Security Council officials typically prepare scripted talking points and background on the leader on the other end of the line. Often an informal transcript of the call is made and circulated among a select group — sometimes a small clutch of aides, sometimes a broader group of foreign policy officials. Those records are preserved and archived.
The White House did not respond to questions on whether the president is keeping records of any less-formal calls with world leaders.
Trump’s White House is already facing scrutiny for apparent efforts to work outside usual diplomatic channels.
The administration has been fending off questions about a senior aide’s alleged attempt to set up a secret back channel of communication with Moscow in the weeks before Trump was took office. White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, met in December with Russia’s ambassador to the US and discussed whether a secret line of communication could be used to facilitate sensitive policy discussions about the conflict in Syria, according to a person familiar with the talks. The person demanded anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the sensitive conversation by name.
The White House has said such back channel communications are useful and discreet.
Trump has struggled more than most recent presidents to keep his conversations with world leaders private. His remarks to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Russian diplomats have all leaked, presumably after notes of the conversations were circulated by national security officials.
It was unclear whether an impromptu, informal call with a foreign leader would be logged and archived. The Presidential Records Act of 1981, passed in response to the Watergate scandal, requires that the president and his staff to preserve all records related to the office. In 2014, the act was amended to include personal e-mails.
But the law contains “blind spots” — namely, record-keeping for direct cellphone communications, said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who specializes in public interest and national security law.
Under Barack Obama, the first cellphone-toting president, worries about cyber intrusions — particularly by foreign governments — pulled the president’s devices deep into the security bubble. Many of the functions on Obama’s BlackBerry were blocked, and a very small handful of people had his phone number or e-mail address, according to former aides.
“Government sometimes looks like a big bureaucracy that has stupid rules, but a lot of these things are in place for very good reasons and they’ve been around for a while and determine the most effective way to do business in the foreign policy sphere,” said Deeks. “Sometimes it takes presidents longer to figure that out.”
Trump’s cellphone diplomacy raises security concerns
Trump’s cellphone diplomacy raises security concerns
Ex-FBI agent and Pentagon contractor sues over secret recording showing him criticizing Trump
- Jamie Mannina said he was induced into criticizing the Trump government in a sting operation organized by conservative activist James O’Keefe
- O’Keefe would later publish online a secretly taken video, painting Mannina as a “top Pentagon adviser” who was plotting a coup against Trump
WASHINGTON: A former FBI agent and Pentagon contractor has sued the founder of a conservative nonprofit known for its hidden camera stings over secretly recorded videos showing the contractor criticizing President Donald Trump to a woman he thought he had taken on a date.
Jamie Mannina says in his lawsuit that he was misled by a woman he met on a dating website who held herself out as a politically liberal nurse but who was actually working with the conservative activist James O’Keefe in a sting operation designed to induce Mannina into making “inflammatory and damaging” remarks that could be recorded, “manipulated” and posted online.
Clips from their January conversations were spliced together to make it appear that Mannina was “essentially attempting to launch an unlawful coup against President Trump,” and articles released online with the videos defamed Mannina by painting him as part of a “deep state” effort with senior military officials to undermine Trump’s presidency, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington.
Mannina does not deny in the lawsuit making the comments but says his words were taken out of context, edited and pieced together in a manner designed to paint him in a false light, including in a written description on YouTube that accompanied the publication of one of the recordings.
O’Keefe founded Project Veritas in 2010 but was removed from the organization in 2023 amid allegations that he mistreated workers and misspent funds. He has continued to employ similar hidden camera stings as part of a new organization he established, O’Keefe Media Group, which also is named in the lawsuit along with the woman who pretended to be on dates with Mannina. Her identity is not known, the lawsuit says.
O’Keefe told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Mannina “voluntarily” offered up the comments in the recording and that it was important for the public to hear Mannina’s remarks. O’Keefe pointed out that the District of Columbia requires the consent of only one party, not both, for a conversation to be recorded. He called the lawsuit an “attack on the First Amendment” and said he was prepared to fight it all the way to an appeals court if necessary.
“He said what he said. We did not take him out of context. The words that we reported came out of his mouth,” O’Keefe said, adding, “We stand by our reporting.”
The lawsuit includes claims of defamation, false light, fraudulent misrepresentation and violations of the federal Wiretap Act. Though the lawsuit acknowledges that D.C.’s consent law for recording conversations, it asserts that the law nonetheless prohibits “the interception and recording of a communication if it was for the purposes of committing a tortious act.”
The complaint arises from a pair of dates that Mannina had in January with the woman and a series of videos that O’Keefe released in the following days. During their first date, the lawsuit alleges, the woman expressed her distaste for Trump and repeatedly pressed Mannina on his political views and about his work with the government. Mannina told her that included working as a “spy catcher” several years earlier when he was an FBI counterintelligence agent.
A recording that O’Keefe released shows Mannina being asked at one point by the woman, whose name was not disclosed in the lawsuit, about his “overall assessment of Trump.”
“He’s a sociopathic narcissist who’s only interested in advancing his name, his wealth and his fame,” Mannina can be heard saying. Asked in the recording whether there was anything he could do to “protect the American people,” Mannina replied that he was in conversation with some retired generals to explore what could be done.
The lawsuit says Mannina and the woman met for a second date over lunch, and as they left the restaurant, a man with a microphone approached Mannina and said: “Jamie, you’re a spy hunter, you say. Well, I’m a spy hunter, too, but I’m evidentially a better spy hunter than you.” The man was O’Keefe, the lawsuit says.
Mannina was swiftly fired from Booz Allen, where he worked as a contractor, after O’Keefe contacted the press office and presented at least parts of the video of the two dates.
The lawsuit was filed by Mark Zaid, a prominent Washington lawyer who routinely represents government officials and whistleblowers. Zaid himself sued Trump last week after the president revoked his security clearance.
“Lying or misleading someone on a dating app, which no doubt happens all the time, is not what this lawsuit seeks to address,” Zaid said in a statement to the AP. “The creation of a fake profile for the specific purposes of targeting individuals for deliberately nefarious and harmful purposes is what crosses the line.”
The lawsuit says the O’Keefe Media Group painted Mannina in a false light by misconstruing his words and his title, including in an article published on its website that said, “BREAKING VIDEO: Top Pentagon Adviser Reveals On Hidden Camera Conversation ‘with a Couple of Retired Generals to Explore What We Can Do’ to ‘Protect People from Trump.’“
According to the lawsuit, the characterization of Mannina as a “top Pentagon adviser,” when he was actually “one of a countless number of defense contractors,” was intended to support “fabricated claims that Mr. Mannina was essentially attempting to launch an unlawful coup against President Trump.”
The lawsuit does not directly say why Mannina was targeted, but it does note that in 2017, when he was working at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, he published three articles in the Huffington Post and The Hill newspaper that were critical of Trump.
Trump surgeon general pick praised unproven psychedelic therapy, said mushrooms helped her find love
Trump surgeon general pick praised unproven psychedelic therapy, said mushrooms helped her find love
- In a book she co-authored, titled “Good Energy,” Casey Means refers to psychedelics in her book as “plant medicine”
- She described how she took mushrooms after she was inspired by “an internal voice that whispered: it’s time to prepare”
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island: President Donald Trump’s new pick for surgeon general wrote in a recent book that people should consider using unproven psychedelic drugs as therapy and in a newsletter suggested her use of mushrooms helped her find a romantic partner.
Dr. Casey Means’ recommendation to consider guided psilocybin-assisted therapy is notable because psilocybin is illegal under federal law. It’s listed as a Schedule 1 drug, defined as a substance “with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Oregon and Colorado have legalized psychedelic therapy, though several cities in Oregon have since banned it.
The surgeon general’s job is to provide Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury. Past surgeons general have used their position to educate Americans about health problems like AIDS and suicide prevention. The surgeon general’s warning in 1964 about the dangers of smoking helped change the course of America’s health.
Some, like Dr. C. Everett Koop, surgeon general under President Ronald Reagan, became widely known with substantial impact on policy, and others slipped easily from memory.
Means’ nomination follows a pattern from Trump to select people known for their public personas more than their policy positions. In the case of Means, the Republican president said he chose her solely on the recommendation of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Bobby thought she was fantastic,” Trump said, adding that he did not know her.
Means, who received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University, began a medical residency in Oregon but did not complete it. Her medical license is listed as inactive. Contacted by phone, Means declined to comment on the record.
She made the recommendation about psychedelics in her 2024 book, “Good Energy,” which she wrote with her brother, Calley Means, an entrepreneur who now works in the Trump administration as a health adviser and who has said he invested in biopharmaceutical companies that specialize in psychedelics.
Much of the book focuses on metabolic health, what Casey Means calls “good energy.” She suggests a number of strategies to help people “manage and heal the stressors, traumas, and thought patterns that limit us and contribute to our poor metabolic health and thriving.”
One such strategy is to “consider psilocybin-assisted therapy,” referring to the compound found in psychedelic mushrooms. She details her thinking on the subject in a 750-word passage.
“If you feel called, I also encourage you to explore intentional, guided psilocybin therapy,” she wrote. “Strong scientific evidence suggests that this psychedelic therapy can be one of the most meaningful experiences of life for some people, as they have been for me.”
Though there have been some studies suggesting benefits from psychedelics, it has not been shown that benefits outweigh the risks. Psilocybin can cause hours of hallucinations that can be pleasant or terrifying. When paired with talk therapy, it has been studied as a treatment for psychiatric conditions and alcoholism, but very little research has been done in healthy people. Side effects can include increased heart rate, nausea and headaches. Taking it unsupervised can be dangerous. Hallucinations could cause a user to walk into traffic or take other risks.
Means wrote that psilocybin and other psychedelics have been stigmatized. She touted the benefits of MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, for helping people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The Food and Drug Administration last year declined to approve the use of MDMA as a therapy for PTSD after a panel of advisers found the research was flawed and there were significant risks in using it.
Means refers to psychedelics in her book as “plant medicine.” She describes how she took mushrooms for the first time around Jan. 1, 2021, after she was inspired by “an internal voice that whispered: it’s time to prepare.”
“I felt myself as part of an infinite and unbroken series of cosmic nesting dolls of millions of mothers and babies before me from the beginning of life,” she wrote, adding that in her experience “psilocybin can be a doorway to a different reality that is free from the limiting beliefs of my ego, feelings, and personal history.”
In a newsletter she published in October, Means said she had also used psychedelics to help her make “space to find love at 35.” She wrote that she “did plant medicine experiences with trusted guides” to become ready for partnership, punctuating the line with a mushroom emoji. She noted she was not necessarily making recommendations that others do the same.
In a post this month about her White House health policy wish list, Means said she wanted more nutritious food served in schools, suggested putting warning labels on ultra-processed foods, called for investigations into vaccine safety and said she wanted to remove conflicts of interest. She did not specifically mention psychedelics but said that researchers have little incentive to study “generic, natural, and non-patentable drugs and therapies” and that a portion of research budgets should be devoted to alternative approaches to health.
Calley Means has also advocated for the use of psychedelic drugs, writing in a 2021 blog post that he first tried psilocybin during a challenging time in his life and “it was the single most meaningful experience of my life — personally, professionally, and spiritually.” He said in 2022 that he had “sold all of my 401k” and bought stocks in two companies that are developing and researching psychedelics. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Casey Means’ confirmation hearing has not been scheduled. Trump chose Means after questions were raised about the resume of his first pick for surgeon general, former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, and he withdrew her nomination.
System glitch delays Australian-made rocket launch
- Chief executive Adam Gilmour: ‘If it orbits Earth “I would probably have a heart attack, actually, because I’ll be so surprised, but deliriously happy’
SYDNEY: An Australian aerospace firm said Thursday it has delayed a historic first attempt to launch a locally developed rocket into orbit, citing a ground system glitch.
Gilmour Space Technologies had planned for a first test launch of its three-stage Eris rocket on Thursday but had to postpone until the next day.
“The issue was with an external power system we use during system checks,” communications chief Michelle Gilmour told AFP.
“We’ve identified the fix but ran out of time to implement it and fuel the rocket within today’s launch window.”
The next window for launch is Friday.
The rocket is set to fly from a spaceport near the east coast township of Bowen, about 1,000 kilometers up from the Queensland capital Brisbane.
If successful, it would be the first Australian-made rocket to make an orbital launch from Australian soil.
The 23-meter vehicle is designed to launch small satellites into low-Earth orbit but on the first launch it will carry a jar of Vegemite — a popular Australian toast topping.
Chief executive Adam Gilmour said the firm is not expecting things to go smoothly on the first test.
If it orbits Earth “I would probably have a heart attack, actually, because I’ll be so surprised, but deliriously happy,” Gilmour told AFP this week.
“We’re going to be happy if it gets off the pad — 10, 20, 30 seconds of flight time: fantastic. So orbit is just not in the realm of my belief right now, even though it’s theoretically possible.”
The rocket design is for a capacity of 100-200 kilogrammes , with further upgrades being developed.
Weighing 30 tons fully fueled, it has a hybrid propulsion system, using a solid inert fuel and a liquid oxidiser, which provides the oxygen for it to burn, Gilmour said.
Gilmour Space Technologies is backed by private investors including venture capital group Blackbird and pension fund HESTA.
The company, which has 230 employees, hopes to start commercial launches in late 2026 or early 2027, Gilmour said, and then to rapidly grow revenues.
Newsom floats cutting free health care for some migrants in California
- Wednesday’s announcement dovetails with Newsom’s push to present himself as a fiscally responsible alternative to Trump, while trying to keep pace with the national mood on immigration
LOS ANGELES: California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday proposed eliminating free health care for undocumented migrants in what he said was an effort to balance a budget battered by Donald Trump’s erratic governance.
The move is the latest sign of political moderation from a man believed to have White House ambitions, who is looking to soften his image among conservative voters and dinstance himself from a reputation as a free-spending liberal helming a state where migration is out of control.
Newsom told a press conference that California should freeze admission to the public Medi-Cal program for undocumented people starting next year, and should charge those already enrolled $100 per month.
“We’re not cutting or rolling back those that enrolled in our medical system. We’re just capping it, particularly for those without documentation,” he said.
Almost 11 percent of the 15 million Medi-Cal recipients are undocumented, Newsom said.
In March, the California state legislature reported that opening Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants — which began in 2023 — had cost $2.7 billion more than expected in 2024.
The program’s costs have also been bloated by high drug prices, including a growing demand for weight control prescriptions.
Trimming eligibility for Medi-Cal and cutting back on drug availability could save the state approximately $5.4 billion over the coming years, Newsom’s office said.
He presented the idea as part of an overall plan to make up a $12 billion shortfall in California’s budget.
Newsom said the state’s financial situation was due in part to the impact of President Donald Trump’s volatile tariff policies, which have walloped California, the world’s fourth largest economy, and one that is heavily exposed to international trade and tourism.
The state’s revenues for the first 18 months of Trump’s presidency were expected to be $16 billion lower than they would have been without the volatility, a fall he dubbed the “Trump Slump.”
Economists say the US economy as a whole is expected to take a hit from the uncertainty generated by the sudden policy lurches from the White House, with business leaders unwilling to invest and consumers increasingly wary of spending.
California last month sued the Trump administration over the tariffs, saying the president did not have the ability to impose taxes on imports unilaterally, a power the lawsuit said rests only with Congress.
Wednesday’s announcement dovetails with Newsom’s push to present himself as a fiscally responsible alternative to Trump, while trying to keep pace with the national mood on immigration.
But he faces a tough balancing act in a state where a majority of voters support providing health care to undocumented migrants.
“California is under assault. The United States of America, in many respects, is under assault because we have a president that’s been reckless in terms of assaulting those growth engines,” he told reporters.
“It’s created a climate of deep uncertainty,” he added.
“This is a Trump Slump all across the United States, reflected in adjustments by every independent economist, by leading banks, by institutions.”
Local Republicans hit back Wednesday, characterizing the budget shortfall as Democratic Party overspending that disproportionately benefits migrants.
“I urged the governor to immediately freeze his reckless Medi-Cal expansion for illegal immigrants a year and a half ago, before it buried our health care system and bankrupted the state,” state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones said.
“With a massive deficit largely driven by this policy, our focus should be on preserving Medi-Cal for those it was originally designed to serve.”
Newsom’s proposal must now go to the state legislature for review.
Hotline between military and air traffic controllers in Washington hasn’t worked for over 3 years
- The Army didn’t immediately comment Wednesday about the near miss earlier this month
A hotline between military and civilian air traffic controllers in Washington, D.C., that hasn’t worked for more than three years may have contributed to another near miss shortly after the US Army resumed flying helicopters in the area for the first time since January’s deadly midair collision between a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, Sen. Ted Cruz said at a hearing Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration official in charge of air traffic controllers, Frank McIntosh, confirmed the agency didn’t even know the hotline hadn’t been working since March 2022 until after the latest near miss. He said civilian controllers still have other means of communicating with their military counterparts through landlines. Still, the FAA insists the hotline be fixed before helicopter flights resume around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The Army didn’t immediately comment Wednesday about the near miss earlier this month and the steps it is taking to ensure helicopter flights in the area are safe or about the hotline.
The FAA said in a statement that the dedicated direct access line between air traffic controllers at Reagan and the Pentagon’s Army heliport hasn’t worked since 2022 because of the construction of a new tower at the Pentagon. But the FAA said “the two facilities continue to communicate via telephone for coordination.”
“The developments at DCA in its airspace are extremely concerning,” Cruz said. “This committee remains laser-focused on monitoring a safe return to operations at DCA and making sure all users in the airspace are operating responsibly.”
The Army suspended all helicopter flights around Reagan airport after the latest near miss, but McIntosh said the FAA was close to ordering the Army to stop flying because of the safety concerns before it did so voluntarily.
“We did have discussions if that was an option that we wanted to pursue,” McIntosh told the Senate Commerce Committee at the hearing.
Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and FAA accident investigator, said “the fact that they were unaware that this connection was not working for three years is troublesome.” But he is not entirely clear on the purpose of the hotline when controllers had other ways to communicate.
But Guzzetti thinks the Army needs to be more forthcoming about what it is doing to ensure the airspace around Washington remains safe. Since the crash, the Army has at times refused to provide information that Congress has asked for, and officials didn’t answer all the questions at a previous hearing.
“The DCA airspace is under the white hot spotlight. So the Army’s going to have to be more transparent and more assertive in their dealings with this problem,” Guzzetti said.
According to a US official, one course of action under consideration now is to have the Army give 24 hours notice of any flights around National Airport. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made and discussions are ongoing.
January’s crash between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter killed 67 people — making it the deadliest plane crash on US soil since 2001. The National Transportation Safety Board has said there were an alarming 85 near misses around Reagan in the three years before the crash that should have prompted action.
Since the crash, the FAA has tried to ensure that military helicopters never share the same airspace as planes, but controllers had to order two planes to abort their landings on May 1 because of an Army helicopter circling near the Pentagon.
“After the deadly crash near Reagan National Airport, FAA closed the helicopter route involved, but a lack of coordination between FAA and the Department of Defense has continued to put the flying public at risk,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth said.
McIntosh said the helicopter should never have entered the airspace around Reagan airport without permission from an air traffic controller.
“That did not occur,” he said. “My question — and I think the larger question is — is why did that not occur? Without compliance to our procedures and our policies, this is where safety drift starts to happen.”
The NTSB is investigating what happened.
In addition to that incident, a commercial flight taking off from Reagan airport had to take evasive action after coming within a few hundred feet of four military jets heading to a flyover at Arlington National Cemetery. McIntosh blamed that incident on a miscommunication between FAA air traffic controllers at a regional facility and the tower at Reagan, which he said had been addressed.
