Trump has fought for years to keep secret details of his bank accounts. Well, here’s the bill coming due despite The Donald’s best efforts.
We can thank his press secretary for this public display. Good job.
New York Times 5.22.2020
The $100,000 check was made out to a government agency. This time his account and routing numbers were clearly visible.
In the past, the $100,000 check from Mr. Trump has been made out to the Small Business Administration initiative to help veteran entrepreneurs, to the Office of the Surgeon General to fight the opioid epidemic, and to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, among other places.
But on Friday, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, did not just reveal that the president was sending his salary to the Department of Health and Human Services to help “support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat the coronavirus.”
She also displayed the president’s private bank account and routing numbers.
The $100,000 check she held up like a prop appeared to be a real check from Capital One, complete with the relevant details. An administration official said mock checks were never used in the briefing.
A White House spokesman, Judd Deere, said in a statement, “Today his 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.”
For an average civilian, that information could be used to withdraw or deposit money, make online purchases or hack an account.
“It’s not a best practice to share that information publicly,” said Eva Velasquez, the president and chief executive of the Identity Theft Resource Center. “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.”
Ms. Velasquez said that a bank was almost certain to have additional protections in place on the account of a high-profile person like the president. Mr. Trump, she said, was not likely to be hacked because of photographs of the check that subsequently circulated online Friday night.
But she said the image of Ms. McEnany flashing Mr. Trump’s personal information in front of cameras sent a concerning message. “This is one of those situations where setting the example is very important,” Ms. Velasquez said. “It’s very important for your average person to understand this is not a best practice.”
Lee's Perspective 