Washington’s hottest commodity is a 10-digit number that can swing financial markets, drive the news, and shift policy—but only if the timing is right.

The White House has received reports in recent weeks that President Trump’s personal phone number has been offered for sale to deep-pocketed interests seeking influence, two administration officials told us. “It’s honestly just wild,” one of them said. “I’ve heard of CEOs offering money for his number. I’ve heard of crypto bros offering cryptocurrency for it.” Journalists have taken to horse-trading among themselves, offering the contact information of other world leaders—or sometimes even dozens of bold-faced names—just to get the most important one saved into their phones. “It’s out of control,” said the second official, who, like others we spoke with for this story, requested anonymity to talk frankly on the issue. “It’s like a wrecking ball.”

No one foresaw this at the start of Trump’s second term, when the number was closely held by the president’s friends and a handful of journalists who used it sparingly. So many people now call Trump on his private iPhone that his advisers have stopped trying to keep track. Sometimes in meetings, he will leave his phone face up, allowing staff to gawk at the flashing notifications of incoming or missed calls that pile up on his screen. Only some of them are from numbers that have been saved in the device. “It is literally call after reporter call,” the first official said. “It is just boom, boom, boom.”

The incoming calls get particularly intense after a journalist successfully catches the president and then publishes a mini-scoop on what he says. It’s like flashing a Bat-Signal: Trump may be idle and chatty. Assignment editors suddenly ask: If it is so easy for the competition to get a scoop, why can’t their reporters do the same, and stat? Network correspondents scramble to one-up each other. “Ten reporters will call in a matter of two hours,” the second official told us.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/03/trump-phone-number/686370/?gift=nHf7iWmpOKBdlkwz68mfUP3DfCTQgC277UHrvDDXUg4