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WASHINGTON (AP) — The livestream of a YouTube content creator talking about investments mysteriously appeared to take over a White House website, raising questions about whether the site was hacked.
The livestream appeared for at least eight minutes late Thursday on whitehouse.gov/live, where the White House usually streams live video of the president speaking.
It’s unclear if the website was breached or the video was linked accidentally by someone in the government. The White House said in a statement that it was “aware and looking into what happened.”
The video that appeared on the government-run website featured some of a more than two-hour livestream from Matt Farley, who posts as @RealMattMoney, as he answered financial questions.
Farley told The Associated Press on Friday that he had no idea what happened and learned about it after the fact.
He said he had not been contacted by the government and didn’t have any theories about how his livestream ended up on the website. He joked that he hoped President Donald Trump and his youngest son, Barron Trump, “are watching my streams and taking advice.”
“Had I known it would have been on the White House website, I probably would have had other things to talk about than personal finance,” Farley said.
When asked what other things he would discuss, Farley responded with a laugh and said: “What would you talk about with the world for eight minutes if you had an opportunity? I’m just some guy making YouTube videos about stocks.”
Trump’s administration and campaign have had a series of digital security breaches and challenges over the last year.
In May, government officials began investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures received text messages and phone calls from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, the Republican president’s chief of staff.
Last year, Iran hacked into Trump’s campaign. Sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump’s running mate.
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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report from Atlanta.
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