react-native mobile-apps government-technology software-decompilation

I decompiled the White House's new app

thereallo.dev

March 28, 2026

9 min read

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

70/100

Summary

The White House's new app is built using React Native with Expo (SDK 54) and operates on the Hermes JavaScript engine. The backend utilizes WordPress with a custom REST API and was developed by "forty-five-press."

Key Takeaways

The White House app is built using React Native with Expo and runs on the Hermes JavaScript engine, utilizing a WordPress backend with a custom REST API.
The app injects JavaScript into external websites to remove cookie consent dialogs, GDPR banners, and paywalls.
The app includes various API endpoints for accessing content such as news articles, live streams, and policy issues from whitehouse.gov.
The app has disabled OTA updates and contains a plugin that strips location tracking, despite the presence of location tracking code in the APK.

Read original article

View story →

Coverage & discussions

Hacker News · thereallo.dev

I decompiled the White House's new app ↗

Community discussions

Hacker News discussion ↗

Historical count: 5 · 5 saved in sample · Historical sample

Analysis ready

Community Sentiment

Negative

Concerns

The app's performance is severely hindered on older devices, leading to a frustrating user experience that could limit accessibility.
Concerns arise about the app's lack of location permissions transparency, raising questions about user privacy and data security.
The presence of a cookie/paywall bypass injector and frequent GPS tracking in a government app suggests significant security vulnerabilities and ethical implications.
Injecting JavaScript into web views for cookie consent overrides indicates a troubling approach to user consent and data handling by the government.