US President-elect Donald Trump believes the only way to guarantee that a message is safe from prying eyes in the computer age is to write on paper and deliver by courier, stressing that no computer is safe.
“It’s very important. If you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way. Because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe. I don’t care what they say – no computer is safe,” the Twitter-loving president-elect told reporters over the holiday weekend.
The comments came after the president-elect whose inauguration is later this month was asked about charges by President Barrack Obama administration and the US intelligence community that Russia was behind the cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Trump dismissed the notion that the Kremlin meddled in the presidential election to help him win.
Trump also touted the computer skills of his son Barron.
“I have a boy who’s 10 years old. He can do anything with a computer,” Trump said, accentuating that “You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier”.
Meanwhile, incoming White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, has said Trump will continue to tweet directly to the public as president, bypassing much of the media.
“I think it freaks the mainstream media out that he has this following of over 45-plus million people that follow him on social media, that he can have a direct conversation. He doesn’t have to have it funnelled through the media,” Spicer said.
“Business as usual is over, as I’ve said before. There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s going to do things first and foremost for the American people,” he added.
But he also promised that the media would have access to President Trump.
“Absolutely, we understand the importance” of press briefings, he said, adding that “We’ll use every tool possible. And absolutely, we’ll sit down and make sure that on a daily basis the press is informed”.
Spicer also said the Obama administration may have gone too far in sanctions on Russia.
“One of the questions that we have is why the magnitude of this? I mean, you look at 35 people being expelled, two sites being closed down, the question is: Is that response in proportion to the actions taken? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but you have to think about that,” Spicer said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”.