Did Donald Trump tweet classified military imagery? | Hacker News Reader

Did Donald Trump tweet classified military imagery?

bbc.co.uk

24 pointssjcsjc12 comments

This analysis suggests it was a particular spook satellite.

https://github.com/cbassa/satellite_analysis/blob/master/nah...

So absolutey, yes.

Why is this even a question? The president can decide what is classified and what is not, it may not be good policy or diplomacy, but that’s the presidents prerogative.

Is it me, or is there a refection of the photographer's head in the image - it looks like they snapped a glossy photograph from an iphone.

Is it Donald? If so it looks like he just whipped his iphone out during the debriefing and twittered the photo.

Perhaps it's just desert coloration from the blast

The original on Twitter [0] shows not only that head to the right side but also the torso of another person in the center. Doubt that's Trump's head though, the contour looks off.

[0] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDPFB_XWkAY6QWB?format=jpg&name=...

Not sure if that's a torso, or the hand holding the phone, the whiter 'oblong' being the bottom of the phone, with the flash at the top

Oh, right, I interpreted that white part as a collar but it might just be part of the phone or a sleeve.

How does the presidential twitter account work?

It seems like Donald just logs in on his laptop, or iphone, and posts what's on his mind.

Surely it should go through a bunch of advisors, and then a communications secretary makes the actual post?

That should be enforced protocol for Presidents, and CEO's, at least.

Donald Trump very likely controls his own Twitter account, personally, with very little input from staff before hitting submit.

This is contrary to other public figures, such as Barack Obama, who had communications staff manage his Twitter account.

Part of Donald Trump’s “draw” if you will is that his messaging is nearly completely unfiltered, raw, and as close to his stream of thought as anyone has ever likely seen from a President in the modern era.

As for how dangerous that is, I’m sure people will be discussing that for years to come.

Probably the only way to enforce this is a constitutional reform or a law (or an executive order :) ).

You think Donald Trump gives a shit about protocol? And who exactly would enforce it?

In his capacity as President of the United States, Donald Trump has the ultimate authority to declassify any executive branch material. So technically, he declassified the material the moment he sent the tweet, assuming the imagery was classified in the first place. I’m unsure if anyone has determined exactly how classified the material was: confidential, secret, top secret.

For anyone thinking that the President should have a process to declassify information like everyone else in the intelligence community: There likely is one, but the ultimate authority to enforce it is vested with the Office of the President and the President likely chose to disregard it by tweeting.

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