Media Screams Trump Will Hack Your Phone, or Something

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The mainstream media is stuck in the second stage of grief’s five stages — namely, anger — following Donald Trump’s election. Like a child petulantly trying to kick the family dog after being sent to his or her room, the media continues to grasp at straws in the seeming belief it can somehow magically whisk Election Day 2024 away if it runs just one more anti-Trump screed. Of such self-deceptive reassurance is Ronan Farrow’s November 20, 2024, attempt at thunderous fear-mongering titled “The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone.”

Farrow bases his article on the premise that since advanced technology exists that can hack into people’s phones without their knowledge, #OrangeManBad will be cackling with glee as he personally snoops into every non-MAGA citizen’s iPhone or Android and tracks their every weepy Bluesky Social post and watched cat video. He attempts to reinforce this with nebulous references to other countries — Greece! Poland! — having allegedly indulged themselves in such behavior as part of the utterly nonsensical notion known as national security. Curiously, based on the article’s content, Farrow found no evidence of such behavior by fine, upstanding supporters of human rights, not to mention to the hilt champions of freedom, like Russia and China. They, of course, would never dare so much as dream of such treachery. Farrow does go out of his way to point out how the best surveillance software emanates from Israel, which goes to figure as everyone knows Israel is needlessly paranoid about other countries and organizations wishing them harm.

Naturally, Farrow casts aspersions solely upon the incoming Trump administration, as it is inconceivable that the Biden administration would have, for the least little moment, contemplated such egregious acts. The very idea that anyone connected with the current administration would consider Trump supporters, or people whose lives testify to adherence to faith’s dictums, or have joined the military to defend their country, could possibly be domestic terrorist threats worthy of spying on by all means available is outrageous in the extreme. Well, aside from the minor detail of doing precisely that.

MORE: EXPOSED: Homeland Security Group Was Planning to Target Trump Supporters As Terrorists

Farrow equally ignores how in April of 2024 the House voted against requiring a warrant for surveillance of American citizen’s personal devices.

The House of Representatives turned aside an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act renewal that would have required a warrant before information gathered about Americans could be made available to law enforcement. The amendment, offered by Arizona Republican Andy Biggs, prohibits warrantless searches of U.S. person communications in the FISA 702 database, with exceptions for imminent threats to life or bodily harm, consent searches, or known cybersecurity threat signatures. By a vote of 212-212, the amendment failed. One hundred and twenty-eight Republicans voted for the amendment, and 86 voted against it. On the Democrat side, the vote was 84 yes and 126 no.

MORE: Speaker Johnson Casts Deciding Vote to Allow the FBI to Spy on Americans Without a Warrant

Farrow’s story is good for some unintentional humor.

Decisions by the White House and by Republican lawmakers about spyware will have implications across a variety of policy areas that Trump and his associates are upending and that reach far beyond Washington. In recent years, an array of states, including Texas, Florida, and California have reportedly purchased spyware and other surveillance technologies; legislators and regulators will dictate whether that trend continues.

I have suspicions that California is not in cahoots regarding spyware utilization with the past or future Trump Administration.

Seriously, Ronan Farrow, you’ve been called a boy genius so often you’ve fallen prey to believing your own press clippings. Your work is a lazy and sloppy rehash of worn-out lies. You post the long-discredited lies about Trump calling for Liz Cheney to be subject to a military tribunal and wishing to “shoot through the fake news.” It attempts to convince progressives that all their self-delusional fears regarding being herded into concentration camps or handmaid tale’s outfits have some basis in reality. Put down your paranoid pen, regardless of how it handsomely pays the rent as you scream into the echo chamber, and take a walk in the country air. It’ll do you good to breathe reality for a change.