Former President Donald Trump’s electronics habits — or rather, the lack thereof — have gained quite a bit of infamy over the years, as it was reported that the former guy downright refused to communicate in a digital manner, such as text messages or emails. It was a bizarre trait for a man who was literally the president of the United States, but it’s one that his closest advisors have said likely served to help keep him out of more legal trouble than he’s already in, because he resoundingly lacks any sort of digital communications trail.
But apparently, Donald Trump’s electronics habits have begun to shift over recent weeks, and it’s leaving some of the big guy’s closest insiders and allies not only shocked but pretty bitter.
According to an interesting report from the New York Times, Donald Trump’s friends, insiders, confidants, and even some that could barely be described as an acquaintance have recently begun to receive text messages from the scandal-ridden former president, starting around the first of the year. Typically speaking, this wouldn’t exactly be media-worthy, but it seems that Trump’s shift to the world of texting has ruffled the feathers of those who have found themselves on the receiving end of Trump’s ire and vitriol as a result of communicating in a way that left a digital trail in their wake.
Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman with the Times write, “Those who have witnessed firsthand his visceral aversion to record-keeping said they were shocked to learn about his new electronic habit.”
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Trump’s former national security adviser turned devout MAGA critic John Bolton said, “Has he now also started to take notes?” when he learned of the former president’s new texting habits.
Bolton was a notorious subject of one of Trump’s worst meltdowns when the then-president tore into his NatSec advisor for daring to take notes during a discussion, as Trump prided himself for being “smart” enough to avoid a documentation trail of his meetings. Trump has even gone so far in the past to snatch written notes away from a junior legal associate who was jotting down the high points during a meeting all the way back in the 1990s.
According to former White House counsel Donald McGahn, Trump said, “I’ve had a lot of great lawyers, like Roy Cohn. He did not take notes.”
According to sources who spoke with the paper, insiders have so far gotten mostly innocuous texts from the former guy’s cell phone, with things such as New Year greetings, political whines and observations, and other various missives from the big guy.
But many of Trump’s associates are rightfully concerned about what Trump will eventually say in a digital communication that can be tracked. However, they are reportedly at least relieved to know that the former president’s phone has been set up to reject any calls from numbers he doesn’t have in his contacts, and send them straight to his voicemail instead.
According to the report, Trump began to warm to digital communications following a call from an NBC reporter who had reached out to the former president amid Kevin McCarthy’s dramatic bid for the House Speaker position.
You can read the full report from the New York Times here.
Featured image via Flickr/Trump White House Archives
