Before becoming president, Donald Trump boasted about making over 50 phone calls a day in his book Trump: The Art of the Deal. Fast forward to today, and his number has become the most valuable commodity in Washington, with every billionaire, journalist, and crypto bro trying to buy or trade his number.
According to a report by The Atlantic, two White House officials have said that President Trump’s personal iPhone number is being bought and sold across Washington. “It’s like a wrecking ball,” one official told The Atlantic.
How did it get this bad?
It started small. Early in President Trump’s second term, the number was closely held by a few friends and select journalists who used their access sparingly. However, so many people now have access to his number and call him on his private iPhone that his aides have stopped screening the calls.
The chaos becomes even more frenzied when one of the journalists gets a scoop and publishes it. Every successful call signals to editors in Washington that their reporter should be doing the same. The result? President Trump’s phone lights up like a pinball machine. “It is literally call after reporter call,” one official said. “Boom, boom, boom.”
President Trump has answered calls from over a dozen outlets since the US first attacked Iran, including The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and more. Officials say that even some Substack authors have started calling, which is surprising given how tightly the president’s phone number used to be controlled.
Is there a plan to stop this?
Having a sitting US president’s phone number on speed dials of so many people was not on my 2026 bingo card, but President Trump’s aides say he enjoys it, and there are no plans to change the number.
The calls are brief, often just a few minutes, and happen on the fly, which means the president’s answers are sometimes contradictory and market-moving for all the wrong reasons.
For now, the most powerful phone number in the world is out there, circulating. And if you’re willing to trade a world leader’s contact or pay for it, you might just be one call away.