Kayleigh McEnany accidentally reveals Trump’s private bank account number while holding up check he made out to the health department to fight against COVID-19
- Trump has donated $100,000 of his presidential salary to the Department of Health and Human Services
- Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany held up Trump’s check to the HHS during a press conference, revealing his bank account number in the process
- Security experts say the information could be used by hackers to access funds, but it is likely Trump has extra protection on his accounts to prevent such an act
- White House officials said media focus on McEnany’s faux pas was a ‘shameful’ way to deflect from the President’s selfless donation
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany inadvertently revealed President Trump’s private bank account and routing numbers on Friday.
McEnany, 32, disclosed the sensitive information during her daily press briefing while holding up a check the Commander-in-chief had made out to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Back in 2016, Trump vowed to forgo his annual $400,000 presidential salary on account of his billionaire status, saying he would instead donate the money to enterprises of his choosing.
On Friday, McEnany revealed that the President had chosen to donate $100,000 of his 2020 earnings to the HHS in a bid to ‘support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat the coronavirus’. She then waved around the check he had written to the government agency for the cameras.
An administration official told The New York Times that mock checks were never used in the briefing, appearing to confirm that the one McEnany flaunted was legitimate.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany inadvertently revealed President Trump’s private bank account and routing numbers on Friday
The incident has alarmed Eva Velasquez, the president and chief executive of the Identity Theft Resource Center.
‘It’s not a best practice to share that information publicly,’ she told The Times.
‘If you don’t have protections in place, there are sophisticated schemes and ways someone could access those funds knowing the account and routing number and the individual person it belongs to.’
However, Velasquez says it’s likely that President Trump’s account has additional security measures in place due to his status. His account is unlikely to be hacked because of McEnany’s faux pas.
An administration official told The New York Times that mock checks were never used in the briefing – appearing to confirm that the one McEnany flaunted was legitimate
However, that didn’t stop social media users from poking fun at both McEnany and Trump.
‘Harvard Law has some explaining to do,’ one Twitter user quipped, wondering how McEnany could have graduated from the prestigious school before making the mistake with the check.
Meanwhile, another took it as an opportunity to claim that Trump is not as rich as he says he is, remarking that his account was ‘probably overdrawn’.
The President’s exact net worth is not known. In March, Forbes estimated he had a fortune of $3.1 billion, down from the $4.1 billion they predicted he had in 2015.
The President’s exact net worth is not known. In March, Forbes estimated he had a fortune of $3.1 billion, down from the $4.1 billion they predicted he had in 2015
Other Twitter users argued it was not an issue that McEnany had revealed the President’s personal details.
‘This is such a silly thing for The New York Times to publish. Literally every check includes this information, printed along the bottom in magnetic ink. If it were actually sensitive, people wouldn’t go around handing it out willy-nilly to their landlords and dog sitters,’ one person stated.
White House spokesperson Judd Deere concurred.
‘Today the President’s salary went to help advance new therapies to treat this virus, but leave it to the media to find a shameful reason not to simply report the facts, focusing instead on whether the check is real or not,’ he stated.
Harvard Law grad McEnany only became White House Press Secretary at the beginning of this month. She is pictured with the President last week