Donald Trump allegedly tapped phone lines at Mar-a-Lago

Donald Trump may have eavesdropped on his employees.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Six former Mar-a-Lago employees told BuzzFeed that Donald Trump had the ability to tap into every phone at the Palm Beach resort, and that he did so to eavesdrop on his staff throughout the mid-2000s.

[Four employees speaking to BuzzFeed anonymously] said [Trump] listened in on calls between club employees or, in some cases, between staff and guests. None of them knew of Trump eavesdropping on guests or members talking on private calls with people who were not employees of Mar-a-Lago. They also said that Trump could eavesdrop only on calls made on the club's landlines and not on calls made from guests' cell phones.Each of these four sources said they personally saw the telephone console, which some referred to as a switchboard, in Trump's bedroom. [BuzzFeed]

The allegations follow a similar rumor reported by The New York Times last month, which cited campaign staffers' concerns that their offices in Trump Tower were bugged. Trump has said in the past that he supports the NSA collecting metadata on civilians and that "I tend to err on the side of security."

Trump's spokeswoman denied the switchboard rumors, telling BuzzFeed such claims were "totally and completely untrue." Read the sources' accounts of the Mar-a-Lago tapping at BuzzFeed.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.