White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany seemed to inadvertently disclose the presidents personal banking information when announcing he was donating his salary to fight COVID-19.
McEnany said at a Friday briefing that President Donald Trump would be donating his quarterly paycheck to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as the agency responds to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Trump, upon taking office, pledged to donate his quarterly $100,000 salary, which he has given to a range of government agencies, including to the departments of Transportation and Veteran Affairs, as well as to the Department of Homeland Security.
McEnany, at the briefing, held up a paycheck and said, “here is the check, amounted to $100,000 that will go directly from President Trump and his paycheck that he does not take but rather donates it to various noble initiatives,” adding that this time it would go to supporting the administrations fight against COVID-19 and in honor of those that the disease has killed.
White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement that on this occasion, the presidents donation would help in the development of new therapeutics to treat COVID-19 infections.
Multiple media outlets speculated whether, in making the announcement, McEnany held up a genuine check that featured the presidents banking information, including Trumps private bank account and routing numbers.
According to The Independent, if the Capital One check McEnany held up was indeed authentic, the information on it could be exploited by hackers.
Eva Velasquez, head of the Identity Theft Resource Center, told the New York Times that Trumps bank account is likely to have additional security features making it a harder target for a malicious cyberattack.
The New York Times speculated whether the check was a mock-up for publicity purposes and cited an administration official as saying that fake checks have not been used in pastRead More From Source
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The Epoch Times
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