On Saturday, while President Trump was golfing four miles away, a Chinese national named Yujing Zhang talked her way into Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club in Florida, with two passports, four cellphones, and a thumb drive infected with "malicious software." She told the Secret Service she was going to use the pool, even though she didn't have a swimsuit; a Mar-a-Lago staffer told the Secret Service to let her in because a member has the same last name. Asked about this breach on Wednesday, Trump said he's "not concerned at all."
"We have very good control," Trump added. "I think that was just a fluke situation."
The FBI is apparently less sanguine. Zhang's breach "turbo-charged" a federal counterintelligence investigation into Chinese or other nations targeting Trump and Mar-a-Lago, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday. The Secret Service has two tasks at Trump's moneymaking vacation hangout, The Washington Post notes: Protecting the president, and keeping the hundreds of members and paying or invited guests happy. Mar-a-Lago staff, not the Secret Service, decides who's allowed into the resort, and agents say they have no system to track who enters or speaks with Trump.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
"The president has no idea who most of the people around him at the club are," a White House official tells the Post. "You pay and you get in." This setup is a potential gold mine for foreign intelligence, even if no spy ever made contact with Trump, the Post adds. "It could be bugged, or its computers hacked, if someone could get in the door."
"The surprise would be if Chinese and Russian and other adversarial governments were not trying to get into Mar-a-Lago and the president's other properties," Peter Harrell at the Center for a New American Security tells the Miami Herald. But authorities aren't sure about Zhang's motives. The electronics and malware are suspicious, but it's also possible she believed she was invited, lured to Mar-a-Lago by advertisements promising access to Trump and his family from Trump donor and day spa owner Li "Cindy" Yang.
-
Critics’ choice: Watering holes for gourmandsFeature An endless selection of Mexican spirits, a Dublin-inspired bar, and an upscale Baltimore pub
-
Argentinian beef is at the center of American farmers’ woesThe Explainer ‘It feels like a slap in the face to rural America,’ said one farmer
-
‘Businesses that lose money and are uncompetitive won’t survive’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
