Next month, nearly every American with a cellphone will receive a text message from President Donald Trump—and there's almost nothing you can do to stop it.
At precisely 2:18 pm ET on Oct. 3, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says it will test the nation's first-ever "presidential alert," a system that will allow Trump to address the entire nation directly via text. Users cannot opt out of presidential alerts—which will reportedly make a uniquely loud noise—so the only way Americans can avoid seeing the messages is to turn their phones off.
And no, you won't be able to text back.
"I'm not sure that the system would protect us from rogue announcements by a president who has exhibited the kind of behavior President Trump has over the last two years," Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, told Vox. "I personally would not give this microphone to Donald Trump."