Donald Trump forced to surrender Android Phone for secure device

LOS ANGELES — Mr Donald Trump, set to be sworn in as President of the US on Friday (Jan 20), has relinquished his beloved Android smartphone for a Secret Service-approved encrypted device, according to reports.

Now that the mogul-turned-president no longer has his civilian phone — which was a Samsung Galaxy, per a New York Times report — he may be unable to use Twitter as frequently as he has to date. However, Mr Trump has claimed he will continue to tweet from his regular @realDonaldTrump handle as well as the White House’s official @POTUS account. (President Obama’s tweets will be archived at a new account, @POTUS44, maintained by the National Archives.)

Mr Trump’s new secure phone has a new number that is known to only a few people, according to the Times. The president-elect told an associate on Thursday that he had given up his previous Android device, per the Associated Press.

Trump aides “expressed relief” that he will not be able to be as easily reachable by phone, the NYT reported, as they “have often been blindsided when a reporter, outside adviser or office-seeker dialled the president-elect directly.”

When Mr Barack Obama took office in 2009, he was similarly forced to trade in his personal smartphone for a security-hardened BlackBerry with a very limited set of features.

Pictured above: President-elect Donald Trump at the 58th Presidential Inauguration Welcome Concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on Jan 19, 2017. VARIETY.COM/REUTERS