I Decompiled the White House's New App

Summary

The White House released an app on the App Store and Google Play. They posted a blog about it. "Unparalleled access to the Trump Administration."It took a few minutes to pull the APKs with ADB, and threw them into JADX.Here is everything I found.What Is This App?It's a React Native app built with Expo (SDK 54), running on the Hermes JavaScript engine. The backend is WordPress with a custom REST API. The app was built by an entity called "forty-five-press" according to the Expo config.The actual app logic is compiled into a 5.5 MB Hermes bytecode bundle. The native Java side is just a thin wrapper.Version 47.0.1. Build 20. Hermes enabled. New Architecture enabled. Nothing weird here. Let's keep going.Expo ConfigTwo things stand out here. First, there's a plugin called withNoLocation. Second, there's a plugin called withStripPermissions. Remember these. They become relevant very soon.OTA updates are disabled. The Expo update infrastructure is compiled in but dormant.What the App Actually DoesI extracted every string from the Hermes bytecode bundle and filtered for URLs and API endpoints. The app's content comes from a WordPress REST API at whitehouse.gov with a custom whitehouse/v1 namespace.Here are the endpoints:EndpointWhat It Serves/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/homeHome screen/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/news/articlesNews articles/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/wire"The Wire" news feed/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/liveLive streams/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/galleriesPhoto galleries/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/issuesPolicy issues/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/prioritiesPriorities/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/achievementsAchievements/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/affordabilityDrug pricing/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/media-bias"Media Bias" section/wp-json/whitehouse/v1/social/xX/Twitter feed proxyOther hardcoded strings from the bundle: "THE TRUMP EFFECT", "Greatest President Ever!" (lol), "Text President Trump", "Send a text message to President Trump at 45470", "Visit TrumpRx.gov", "Visit TrumpAccounts.gov".There's also a direct lin...