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But keeping a jet aircraft from another nation is totally ok... got it :)
Uh duh? Pretty normal procedure when visiting foreign governments.
However the problem isn't the support staff, it's the moron leaders that are the problem. I bet 100 bucks that Trump kept at least a gift that contains a spy equipment.
Him? Keep gifts that almost certainly contain spy equipment? He'd never do that. Certainly not giant, 747 sized ones.
MAGA's dear leader is the spy equipment
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I assume China (or any other government) can get top secret intel by simply bribing Trump and asking him.
what a upsetting thing to be nodding my head to. god i wish i had a president with dignity
Sounds like the US use gifts, pins and burner phones to spy on foreign governments
My brother-in-law traveled a lot for work, from the early nineties, to the 20-teens.
He visited, China, Russia, the U.S., India, all over Southeast Asia, Australia. Maybe South America, but not sure. Anyway, the point is he visited a lot of places, and the big ones fairly routinely. China is the only country, where his company had a whole list of requirements. He had to leave his personal phone, any personal electronics, and his work laptop at home. (They provided him a phone and laptop that would immediately be turned over once he returned and he could NOT log onto the company VPN with the laptop/phone they gave him and had to have his work email forwarded. )
They gave him money to buy a new suit before he went over there and to replace his luggage and clothes when he came back, because it was all discarded.
He said it was not so much government spying but industrial espionage. And he just worked in human resources.
I was in the Navy and visited Hong Kong a couple of times and they never said boo to me outside of the usual, "Loose lips sink ships." spiel we got at every port.
They let him take his phone to Russia, but they did made him take a different work laptop, but that laptop could access the company VPN. He said there is was more about the government spying. I did not visit any Russian port while in the Navy.
My past few employers have all had similar policies, it’s common in tech. I cannot take any company equipment over the Chinese border and we are strongly discouraged against bringing any personal equipment. The company has special burner laptops and phones for the few cases where we actually need a business trip to China.
Wow that sounds pretty Draconian. I would not travel without a personal phone, after all the trip is not 100% work time. I'd bring a personal burner, not my real phone, but I'd bring something. I don't want my work to listen in on all personal comms while I'm there. I mean if they want me to leave a personal device in the hotel ok but not bringing it at all?
And throwing my luggage and clothes away? Over my dead body.
Of course with any work issued stuff they can do whatever they want. But not my personal things.
I would really refuse a trip under such conditions, or refuse the conditions themselves.
I mean, there is a history of a lot of nations doing this.
That’s well known. We even did that with the original iPod back in the day.
They should know after having received one of these marvels back in the Cold War.
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had to surrender various items collected during the trip, including staff burner phones, credential badges, and lapel pins issued by China.
They think the Chinese are doing that.
Because that's what they do...
That's what everyone does.
Example gift from Russia, completely passive listening device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
What a fascinating read, cheers !
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Throw away air force one and the president while you are at it.
No shit? Them and every other country with resources does the same. They even send vendors and HUMINT collectors to all sorts of conferences all year round trying to pass off devices and keep tabs on trends. Collecting in their home country is just expected. The weak links are the idiots that don’t take it seriously, sneak a personal device on a trip that they lose sight of at any point or even just become too close in proximity to a collector and then carry it back home with an exploited device and credentials.
The Chinese probably gave them normal gifts, pins, and phones because why waste money on tech when top secret files are stored in the bathroom and POTUS tweets sensitive information?
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One of the most sensible things I’ve seen from the administration.
Kinda surprised Trump was OK with it tbh…
Oh you know he didnt have to throw his special gifts away..,
Right? I was gonna say, there is no way he isn't keeping is 44k gold plated listening device.
Did China gift him kids?
China called him out by having a bunch of little kids cheering, the kids were the only group he stopped to be creepy at.
FR?
I love/hate that we even have to ask.
Probably had to tie him down cause he thought that they loved him so much.
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Trump probably thinks he’s above the rules, so of course he’d want to keep the solid gold microphone Xi gave him with the plaque that says “The Greatest Speeches Ever.”
He probably thinks it would look great on his desk.
Ironic . . as I use a burner phone when traveling to the USA.
Pretty sure this is SOP. At least, it was before these idiots took over.
Not sure why this is news, unless this didn’t occur to these morons before now and they think it’s a Very Good, Big Brain Idea™ that was obvious to literally everyone else.
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Why throw them away?
Good counterintelligence would be to get as many as possible and reverse engineer them.
I wouldn't be surprised if we fired everybody who could do that.
I have $20 that says Drumpf keeps some tacky piece of shit with a bug in it
But otherwise it was a great trip!
I bet all of them will end up in Trump's treasury.
Throw Away = give them all to Trump
Yah... Duh... Thats how espionage works...
China would tell their diplomats to do the same returning from the US.
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this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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