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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.

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Senators question Donald Trump's smartphone security - The Verge

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."

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Donald Trump just can't get along with a hugely important American industry - Washington Post

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.

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The Most Dangerous National Security Threat That Donald Trump Is Ignoring - Fortune

Donald Trump brilliantly managing his team of A-list talent. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Donald Trump is already publicly floating the first of what will probably be several waves of firings of his top staff, while the news is a daily procession of astonishing revelations that paint the president of the United States as a lazy, ignorant, temperamental man-child who flouts basic security requirements and signs major orders he has not bothered to read. Or so it might appear to the outside world. Christopher DeMuth, a distinguished fellow that is his actual job title at the conservative Hudson Institute detects a different pattern at work. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the conservative scholar explains why President Trumps seemingly chaotic managerial style actually reflects a shrewd and even brilliant grasp of his power.

President Trump may be rediscovering a venerable method of leadership that has been forgotten in our era of ideological messaging, argues DeMuth. Rather than viewing disagreement as a problem, he attracts highly accomplished, strong-minded advisers who engage in vigorous debate. So the daily stream of Trump aides anonymously blaming one another for the administrations failures is actually, to DeMuth, evidence of the presidents sound management.

What are the specific practices that Trump has embraced to make his young presidency such a rousing success? DeMuth argues:

Apparently a lesser president would never have thought to make simple and popular promises like preventing terrorism and creating good jobs. DeMuth does not bother with the question of whether Trump has any policies to accomplish those goals he is sufficiently impressed that Trump would think to promise them.

Trump also has the cleverness to say crazy stuff:

Orthodox opinion believes that higher concentration of greenhouse gasses causes higher long-run temperatures, very few ineligible voters participate in presidential elections, and Trumps inaugural crowd had many fewer attendees than Barack Obamas first inaugural crowd. DeMuth does not quite endorse all of Trumps claims to the contrary, but sees his decision to provoke debates on such subjects as shrewd.

Trump has found the very best officials for his administration:

Carson and Perry are odd choices to support the claim that Trump has attracted elite talent. According to Trump himself, Carson is pathological and Perry is a moron. (He put on glasses so people think hes smart. People can see through the glasses.) To be sure, one might dismiss these insults on the grounds that Trump is a flamboyant liar who reflexively smears any critic who stands in his path, but aknowledging this would obviously complicate DeMuths argument, so he simply pretends that everybody recognizes that Carson and Perry (neither of whom had any experience in their new fields) are A-list cabinet picks.

The president has a wide-ranging thirst for knowledge:

Put differently, Trump reads no books, cannot digest any summary more than a single page, and instead watches endless television, and repeats wild, false viral rumors from fake internet sites.

DeMuth finds more good news:

It is perhaps true that, in the course of alarming close American allies like Germany, France, and even Australia, Trump has caused those countries to become more focused. DeMuth does not explain why this is beneficial. Trump has distracted his domestic opponents by embroiling himself constant and numerous scandals and repeating endless falsehoods. Here, again, DeMuth does not elaborate on why this is helpful.

Having praised Trumps frequent, unpredictable and wide-ranging tweets, DeMuth praises him for his taciturn qualities:

Trump did state that he had virtually finished a plan to repeal Obamacare, indicating the debate was over. But this comment reportedly confused his allies, who quickly discovered the plan Trump described was in fact entirely a figment of Trumps imagination. The debate has not even come close to ending.

Trump, argues DeMuth positively but vaguely, is doing good things in the intelligence field:

Trump attacked the Central Intelligence Agency, later visited the agency to deliver a rambling, self-aggrandizing speech about himself, appointed as director of National Intelligence Michael Flynn, a conspiracy theorist who pointedly rejects any data that fails to confirm his assumptions, and who Trump may well fire within his first month on the job. A good start! DeMuth does not explain what a bad start would look like.

Watching Donald Trump Try to Puzzle Out What Asset Forfeiture Means Is Deeply Discomfiting

Republican Senator Admits GOP Health-Care Plan Has to Remain Secret Because It Will Be Unpopular

April Ryan says her former friend got in her face just a few steps from the Oval Office.

Flynn said he apologized to Pence following reports that he misled the vice president about his calls with the Russian ambassador.

One Republican senator is getting impatient.

The National Security Adviser seems to be in limbo after misrepresenting his conversations with a Russian diplomat.

At press conference, Trump ranted about his electoral win and Mexico, while Trudeau delivered a small burn on refugee policy.

An extremely interesting defense of the presidents aptitude in The Wall Street Journals editorial pages.

A HRC 20 scenario denies her the dignity of being a trailblazer who will pave the way for another woman to win the presidency.

He met with the president and First Daughter at the White House.

The groom was the son of a major donor to pro-Trump super-PACs.

Mexicans marched against the wall, deportation, and Mexicos corruption.

The history is pretty clear: Presidents parties lose in midterms unless Americans are preoccupied with the kind of security fears Trump likes to fan.

Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks said he doesnt want to be used by the Israeli government for public-relations purposes.

The college controversially named for a prominent defender of slavery will now honor a visionary female computer programmer.

The fitting depiction of our 45th president was quickly pulled.

Damage to a spillway at the Oroville Dam is threatening to flood the surrounding area.

And other scary leaks on how the Trump administration is handling national security.

The embattled national-security adviser could become the administrations first sacrifice to the realities of political turmoil.

The politics of Andrew Jackson reemerging in 2017.

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe denounced the test from Mar-a-Lago with Trump in tow.

He also suggested that Democrats have nothing but flailing and screaming in response to the presidency of Donald Trump.

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Donald Trump Is a Managerial Genius, Explains Conservative Scholar - New York Magazine

Four Republican senators are on the fence about supporting President Donald Trumps choice for labor secretary, CNN andThe Washington Post report.

Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Tim Scott (S.C.)and Johnny Isakson (Ga.) are still reportedly unsure whether theyll back Andrew Puzder for the job. Collins told reporters Monday she is going to wait until the issues that have arisen are fully explored at Puzders Thursday confirmation hearing.

Those issues include accusations of domestic violencefrom Puzders ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, who once appeared in disguise on The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk about her experience, according to Politico. The Washington Post reportsFierstein recently retracted the allegations.

Puzders nomination has also been riddled with controversy thanks to his past work as the chief executive of CKE Restaurant Holdings, which owns the Hardees and Carls Jr. burger chains. Under Puzders watch, the company broke worker safety laws, repeatedly stiffed workersand faced an immigration audit that led to the firing of about 1,200 undocumented immigrants. Puzder also once employed an undocumented immigrant as household help.

Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), have called on Trump to withdraw Puzders name from consideration for labor secretary.

They ought to withdraw Mr. Puzder before he further embarrasses this administration and further exposes the hypocrisy of President Trump, who says one thing to the American worker and does another, Schumer said last week.

Because no Democrats or independents have pledged to vote for Puzder, Republicans need at least 50 of the 52 Republicans in the Senate to vote in support of Trumps pick. If two GOP senators are swayed to support Puzder after his confirmation hearing this week, Puzder could be confirmed with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence, as happened with the confirmation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVosearlier this month.

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4 GOP Senators Reportedly Undecided About Donald Trump's Pick For Labor Secretary - Huffington Post