> Do people have experience traveling with burner phones to the US and how border control may treat them if they request them?

I used to do that and luckily they never asked to unlock them. What will happen now is anyone’s guess, but it is very difficult to imagine that the current shambles won’t embolden power-tripping border cops. There are reports of tourists being held in chains and being held in detention for days.

> I would be afraid to offer any more suspicion of hiding sth

So would I, which is why I won’t be going to the US anytime soon. It’ll be a shame not to see my American friends.

Border protection officers have always had a lot of power. Before, there was an understanding that they would behave sensibly and everything was predictable: if you had a visa or a waiver, you were in. Now, who can say?

It’s in the article.

"It happens sometimes" and "it never happened to me" are not mutually exclusive. Both can be true at the same time.

> We do not want to become that kind of scary country to travel to

It is too late for this. The common policy for researchers going to the US for conferences is to use a burner laptop with nothing but a PowerPoint file. That is the official requirements for public research institutions (which this person should have followed). Just like we do for China and we used to do for Russia. It does not make headlines every time, but a lot of us know a couple of people whose laptops were taken away for searching it. Personally I have also been using a burner phone for a few years (I should say that I had been, because all my scheduled trips to the US this year were cancelled).

> especially not the kind of shithole country where you have to be afraid not to offend dear leader

Before, providing social media handles was a nuisance (and I was never questioned about them). Now it’s scary.

Same for the questions about terrorism. It used to be funny and over the top, but if liking a post about Luigi Mangione is terrorism then it puts the whole thing in a quite different light.

> Musk was clear that the reason was that they didn't want someone pro trump having success so close to the election.

This makes no sense whatsoever. The election was in November. If that was their calculation, they’d just have cosplayed astronaut-saving heroes before Trump had an opportunity to do so, between November and January. Musk is full of it, as usual.

It is not the first time some astronauts stay in space longer than expected and it never was controversial before. The people making noise cannot even find a single reason for Biden to do what they accuse him of doing, much less any proof that he did so.