Why Is The Trump Administration Having So Much Trouble Keeping Their Comms Private?
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When former national security advisor Mike Waltz had a picture taken of him last week, he didn’t expect for the whole world to see that he was using TeleMessage, a messaging app similar to Signal. Now the app has been hacked, with portions of data linked to government entities like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and companies like Coinbase. Today on the show, we’re joined by WIRED senior writer Lily Hay Newman to discuss what this incident tells us about the growing vulnerabilities in government communications.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
- Mike Waltz Has Somehow Gotten Even Worse at Using Signal
- The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked
- The Signal Clone Mike Waltz Was Caught Using Has Direct Access to User Chats
You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky @zoeschiffer, and Lily Hay Newman @lhn.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Zoe. |
| 0:02.9 | Before we start, I want to take a chance to remind you that we want to hear from you. |
| 0:06.6 | If you have tech-related questions that have been on your mind or a topic that you wish we've covered recently, |
| 0:12.1 | write to us at uncanny valley at wire.com. |
| 0:15.7 | And if you listen to and enjoy the episodes, please rate it and leave a review on your podcast app of choice. |
| 0:21.3 | It really honestly makes a difference. |
| 0:28.9 | Welcome to Wired's Uncanny Valley. |
| 0:31.2 | I'm Wired's director of business and industry, Zoe Schiffer. |
| 0:34.6 | Today on the show, the hacking scandal surrounding telemessage, the knockoff |
| 0:39.2 | version of Signal, which is used by at least one high-ranking member of the Trump administration. |
| 0:45.1 | The app has temporarily suspended its services while it investigates the incident. |
| 0:50.2 | We're going to talk about how the former national security advisor, Mike Walts, was seen last week using the app in a cabinet meeting and what this latest incident tells us about the growing vulnerabilities in government communication. |
| 1:02.4 | I'm joined by Lily Hay Newman, senior writer at Wired. |
| 1:06.4 | Lily, welcome to the show. |
| 1:08.1 | It's a pleasure to be here. |
| 1:13.2 | Maybe let's start with like what exactly is TeleMessage. |
| 1:17.2 | Yeah, so TeleMessage is a company that's been around since the late 90s. |
| 1:21.5 | It was founded in Israel. |
| 1:24.0 | And it creates apps that are sort of mirror images or clones of existing communication apps |
| 1:32.5 | and then adds in an archiving feature. So this is especially perhaps wanted for apps that |
| 1:40.7 | are securing communications such that it's difficult to retain copies of the messages. |
| 1:47.0 | So if you need copies for compliance or you need a record, the idea is that these services are |
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