Yeah, I'm also surprised this wasn't already the case. Which I guess is what gives it the element of fishiness. If it's a secure area, then personal devices should have already been banned. So either they had lax security to begin with or it's a non-secure area and they're just trying to hide their sorry excuse for an Executive Branch.
I'm curious what they mean by government-issued work devices. Is this a locked down phone that can only make calls over secure channels and can't leave the secure area? Or is it just a government issued phone that employees can take home (and out of secure custody), but unlike their personal phone has a backdoor so the administration can read everyone's emails and go after whistleblowers? What the work devices actually are makes a big difference in their claims of "for security reasons".
I just don't see a place that receives as many visitors as the West Wing does being a secure area. It has secured rooms, sure, but they're talking about not allowing visitors in general to keep their phones. Also, the press corps has offices in the West Wing, so I really doubt this is a all a secure area.
Now, if Trump's administration is running their mouths about sensitive info or leaving Top Secret documents lying around in the non-secure areas of the West Wing (where it could be recorded by personal devices), THAT is an entirely different issue that would be better solved by unemployment and/or prison (and not for the whistleblowers).
