It’s not only bullets Trump has to dodge. Now it’s bad actors online.
Because a massive hack of the Trump campaign is turning the election upside down.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Safety Review Board is launching an investigation into how Chinese hackers managed to breach the presidential campaigns of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, spotlighting what many see as a national security crisis caused by foreign interference.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the DHS announcement came Monday, though the agency withheld a specific start date.
“The Cyber Safety Review Board will initiate a review of this incident at the appropriate time,” a DHS spokesman stated.
This development follows confirmation from the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Friday that both campaigns were hit by Chinese hackers in a “malicious” attack. This operation, ominously known as “the Salt Typhoon,” has gained traction as investigations have peeled back layers on its expansive reach over recent weeks.
Politico reports that as of Monday, nearly 40 individuals have been targeted.
Not only were Trump and Harris’s campaigns in the crosshairs, but “Salt Typhoon” also extended to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) staff and officials within the Biden administration.
The breach even compromised major telecommunications companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen, critical infrastructure used by the Trump campaign, with Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), particularly impacted on Verizon systems.
This breach bears a chilling similarity to Iran’s earlier cyberattack on Trump’s campaign.
In August, Iranian hackers disseminated stolen documents from the Trump campaign to major media, though the outlets refrained from publishing sensitive material from the 271-page dossier on Vance.
The Trump campaign views both the Chinese and Iranian hacks as clear cases of “election interference,” and leading GOP voices have condemned what they see as federal investigative agencies failing to act decisively on the Iranian breach.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Sunday voiced sharp criticism of the FBI’s response to Iran’s interference, suggesting that “anti-Trump political bias has corrupted the Biden administration’s FBI’s decision-making.”
She argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the FBI is “willfully covering up” information related to Iranian efforts to influence the 2024 election, accusing the agency of doubling down on “politicization and corruption.”
The Trump campaign also raised concerns about potential political bias influencing the DHS’s investigation into China’s actions, suggesting that the Biden administration’s approach could allow hostile foreign actors to strike at Trump.
“This is the continuation of election interference by Kamala Harris and Democrats who will stop at nothing, including emboldening China and Iran to attack critical American infrastructure, to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House,” said Trump campaign senior advisor Steven Cheung to the Washington Examiner.
Cheung added, “They have now stood by and allowed major foreign adversaries to attack us in order to illegally help Kamala because they know she represents a weak American who will always bow down.”
“Whereas, President Trump will actually stand up against our enemies and defend the United States from any and all aggression.”
The allegations underscore the Trump campaign’s concern that the Biden administration’s negligence has created an environment where foreign interference threatens American electoral integrity at a critical time.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
