Trump might still be using his five-year-old Android phone and that’s a bigly problem

Donald Trump is fabulously wealthy, that’s for sure. While his actual net-worth is a subject for debate, it’s safe to assume that he can afford a new smartphone. Which is why it’s so strange that The Donald continues to use an old Samsung Galaxy S3 – which was first released in 2012 – as the vessel of choice for his ever-deranged twitter shitposting.

Android Central analyzed several photos of The Donald using his beloved smartphone, and determined that the phone he is currently using is the Samsung Galaxy S3. This is roughly five years old, and last received an update in mid-2015, when it was updated to Android 4.3 JellyBean.

While one photograph dating from February 2016 shows the device in use while he was in the midst of his controversial campaign, it’s a bit murky whether the device followed him to the Oval Office. By some accounts, Trump has switched over to a Secret Service-supplied smartphone that’s tightly locked down. However, more recent (and contradictory) accounts reported by The New York Times suggest that Trump continues to use his beloved phone.

So, why does this matter? Surely we’ve got bigger things to worry about (like the fact that the human embodiment of an email that starts with “RE:FWD:RE:RE:RE:FWD:FWD” now has his finger on the button) than Trump’s phone of choice, right?

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It matters because even if you don’t like him, Trump is still president. There’s a huge amount of responsibility on his shoulders. And even if you disagree with him vehemently, what he says matters.

We all know what happened when Trump tweeted about the (admittedly expensive) F-35 project, and the upcoming renewal of Air Force One. Shares in Lockheed Martin and Boeing tanked.

Imagine the chaos that could happen on the financial markets if a hacker was able to gain access to Donald Trump’s Twitter account and started tweeting things like: “Failing store Wal-Mart sold me a bottle of expired milk. Will apologize or suffer. SAD!”

And if Donald Trump is using an ancient, unpatched smartphone, that’s a real possibility.

So, please. If anyone from Donald Trump’s team is reading this, can you please get him a new phone? His birthday is in June, but maybe it could be an early present. I know he likes his Galaxy S3, but perhaps he’ll be amenable to the Galaxy S8, which comes out in March. I’m sure Samsung will comp him a pre-release model, what with him being the most powerful man in the world and all.