Seven Reasons Trump’s Entire National Security Team Should Resign in Disgrace
The White House, with the help of Politico, is trying to make National Security Adviser Mike Waltz the fall guy for adding Atlantic editor Jeff Goldberg to the Signal thread on which they planned war strikes against Yemen.
Nothing is decided yet, and White House officials cautioned that President Donald Trump would ultimately make the decision over the next day or two as he watches coverage of the embarrassing episode.
A senior administration official told POLITICO on Monday afternoon that they are involved in multiple text threads with other administration staffers on what to do with Waltz, following the bombshell report that the top aide inadvertently included Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a private chat discussing a military strike on Houthis.
“Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,” said the official, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberation. And two high-level White House aides have floated the idea that Waltz should resign in order to prevent the president from being put in a “bad position.”
“It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can’t have recklessness as the national security adviser,” the official said.
Mind you, the knives have been out for Waltz already, and the notion that he was in touch with a Neocon journalist like Goldberg would only help those already trying to oust Waltz make the case that he’s not on Trump’s America First agenda.
And Politico doesn’t mention whether its sources were also on the Signal thread, and whether their discussions about making Waltz take the fall were done on Signal.
It is a transparent attempt to make a major breach — potentially a crime — into something else, the forgivable error of adding the wrong person to a chat thread.
This cover story, that this is just a reckless mistake about adding the wrong person to a Signal thread, also happens to be the line Trump’s closest allies in the Senate and the few Fox News hosts Trump hasn’t already hired into his Administration are parroting on TV.
1. Waltz set up a Signal chat to make war plans without verifying the ID of those included
To be sure, it was pretty boneheaded that Waltz didn’t better verify the people he was first adding to Signal and then putting on a “principles [sic] group” to plan war strikes.
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me.
[snip]
Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
Note, at about the time Waltz made this list, 11:28 PM Moscow time, list member Steve Witkoff was meeting with Putin, after having been left waiting for hours.
So yeah, Trump’s National Security Adviser exercised little diligence about how he set up a list to carry on highly classified conversations involving people’s cell phones, including cell phones that might be in Russia.
2. The entire national security team participated in a potential violation of the Espionage Act
But the effort to claim this is just a mistake in the creation of the Signal list is an attempt to downplay that Trump’s CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, sent the identity of a currently serving intelligence officer and later sent what appears to be sources and methods on Signal, and then his Secretary of Defense, Whiskey Pete Hegseth, sent operational details of the imminent strikes on Yemen on Signal, and then Waltz himself sent out what sound like the immediate results of the operation, also on Signal.
All those men, who loudly condemned Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden for their unintentional mishandling of classified information, who demanded that DOJ prosecute such lapses, sent information on an insecure chat that happened to include a journalist.
18 USC 793(f) makes it a crime to so negligently mishandle National Defense Information that someone not authorized to receive it does receive it.
(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
And yet Trump’s entire national security team — not only his National Security Adviser and his CIA Director and his Secretary of Defense, but also his Chief of Staff, his Secretary of State, his Vice President, his Director of National Intelligence, and others — did nothing as the entire team shared information about an upcoming and recently completed military attack, on Signal.
The entire gang was in on it.
3. [Trump claims] his entire national security team may have committed a crime and also an embarrassing story was about to break but no one told him
When Trump was first asked about the story, he played dumb, claiming he didn’t know anything about it.
I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. But I know nothing about it. You’re saying that they had what?
Sure, this is almost certainly a lie. Goldberg says he told the White House about it at 9AM yesterday morning.
But now that Trump has told the lie, he has also claimed that after his entire national security team learned that a journalist may have witnessed them engage in behavior that might violate the Espionage Act, none of them told him — not JD Vance, not Mike Waltz, not Susie Wiles, not the NSC spox who gave on the record confirmation that the thread was authentic — none of them alerted Trump to the breach. Trump would further have you believe that none of them told him — not JD Vance, not Mike Waltz, not Susie Wiles, not the NSC spox who gave on the record confirmation that the thread was authentic — that an incredibly damaging story was about to drop.
If that were true it would mean Trump could trust no one to keep him informed of the most basic things. It would mean his entire national security team fucked up and kept it a secret from him.
4. DOD attacked a foreign country based on Stephen Miller’s feels of Trump’s intent
One weird line in the Atlantic story describes how Stephen Miller (Trump’s domestic policy advisor, not formally on his foreign policy team) interpreted Trump’s views from a prior meeting in the Situation Room, and Miller’s interpretation was all it took to affirm Trump’s intent to launch strikes on Yemen.
At this point, the previously silent “S M” joined the conversation. “As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
That message from “S M”—presumably President Trump’s confidant Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff, or someone playing Stephen Miller—effectively shut down the conversation. The last text of the day came from “Pete Hegseth,” who wrote at 9:46 a.m., “Agree.”
This entire operation was — is, still — being authorized solely on Presidential authority.
But the Presidential authority, the thing that gives it some cover of law, amounts to Stephen Miller’s feels about the President’s intent.
That’s a pretty flimsy basis on which to launch military strikes.
5. Hegseth lied when caught
All this broke as Pete Hegseth was flying to Hawaii, his first trip to Asia as Defense Secretary (if he makes it that far).
When asked about sending war plans on a thread that included a journalist, Hegseth lied, claiming no one had been texting war plans. (In a truly spectacular touch, Hegseth put the video of himself lying up on his “DOD Rapid Response” Xitter account, after which it promptly got fact-checked.
I get that these underqualified right wing white men never take personal accountability for their actions.
But this undermines whatever leadership credibility Hegseth otherwise might have had.
The military requires accountability from its leaders.
Hegseth refused to take any.
6. Waltz set the threads to autodelete, likely deliberately defying the Presidential Records Act
According to Goldberg, Mike Waltz set the text threads to auto-delete.
There was another potential problem: Waltz set some of the messages in the Signal group to disappear after one week, and some after four. That raises questions about whether the officials may have violated federal records law: Text messages about official acts are considered records that should be preserved.
Not only would deleting this thread without creating a record violate the Presidential and Federal Records Acts, but that’s probably why they were sending war plans on Signal.
That is, the most likely reason why Trump’s entire national security team was using an insecure platform to plan war strikes was to ensure there were no embarrassing records for posterity, a violation of the law.
7. The entire national security team may have committed a crime in plain sight but Pam Bondi and Kash Patel won’t investigate
Pam Bondi was admittedly busy yesterday making multiple TV appearances in which she scolded Jasmine Crockett for opposing Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the government.
In none of them did she say she was opening an investigation into whether Mike Waltz or any of the other people on the list violated the Espionage Act or any other laws.
Who are we kidding? There’s no way Bondi or Kash Patel will investigate this (though they too criticized Biden and Hillary about classified information).
And that, in and of itself, is reason why Bondi and Patel should resign in disgrace. Because even in the face of a humiliating security breach, they’ll do nothing to hold Trump’s people accountable.
Update: I watched the Threats hearing at which Tulsi and John Ratcliffe testified. Both seem to be claiming that nothing they posted was classified, but they defer to DOD regarding whether anything Whiskey Pete shared was classified. Clearly Whiskey Pete has retroactively declassified material to cover up his possible crime.
Of note, Ratcliffe did not know (and seemed surprised) that Steve Witkoff was in Russia during the period of the list. And Tulsi admitted she had been overseas during the period as well; she did a trip to the Pacific, including stops in Hawaii, Japan, Thailand, India and France.
Finally, Tulsi freely agreed to have her own use of Signal (and other encrypted apps) audited to make sure she’s not doing anything impermissible; Ratcliffe was cagier, and said only he’d do so if NSC agreed.
This was a good piece. Clear, simple, right to the point. Even people who don’t follow your stuff can get it. :thumbs up emoji:
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The line from the article that struck me hardest was, “One more person responded: “John Ratcliffe” wrote at 5:24 p.m. with the name of a CIA official to be included in the group. I am not publishing that name, because that person is an active intelligence officer.”
I think I’ll just beat my head against the wall until I become unconscious!
No need to do that. last thing we need is more impared thinking!
FBI agents are too busy investigating tesla vandalism and redacting epstein documents to get involved in this.
Too right, absolutely nothing will come of this.
Butter emails!
TW,
Alternatively, “Buttery mails!”
dnd
That one came to me shortly after I posted and I’ve spent the last few hours regretting that I missed it.
FBI Agent says to the boss, “Kash, you have the experience covering up national security crimes for and by Mr. Trump. Why don’t you take this one? Besides, I gotta work on my list of five things I did last week.”
I assume your last sentence is referring to Marcy’s last sentence where she notes Bondi and Patel will do nothing about it. It’s a very long jump, though, from Bondi and Patel not doing anything to “nothing will come of this.”
If, otoh, you are right, why the fuck bother visiting his site, where folks are engaged in countering this civilization-threatening mob in hundreds of different ways? Shouldn’t you be breaking out the booze and having a ball?
https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858823646/
And as far as something to do about it right now:
https://5calls.org/
That is where contact info for each and every elected federal official is provided, collated by zip code, along with a list of leftist issues to advocate for or against. This particular issue, as Marcy expertly lays out above, will only become as huge an issue as it should be if folks like us make it so. I am sending all my reps the link to this post, and I hope that many of Marcy’s US readers will do the same.
“…why the fuck bother visiting his site, …”. Who is “his”?
Autocorrect strikes again. Same (most likely) for “principles group” because those systems understand words not meaning.
not “his site”, likely a typo for “this site” (seems to fit logically)
Yup, typo and bad proofread: “this.”
[Moderator’s note: You’ve made two typos today — you entered “typBRUCE F COLE” in the username field on this comment, and you mangled your email address on your last comment. I’ve fixed your username and the email address without comment as I fixed one of your comments yesterday with yet another mangled email address. SLOW DOWN AND CHECK YOUR TYPING BEFORE SUBMITTING. I don’t need the extra work. /~Rayne]
Again, my bad. Will strive to improve!
I’d think local cops could take care of the Tesla vandalism and leave the FBI free to investigate breaches of security. But what do I know?
Waltz and Ushaa were scheduled to invade, uhh, fly to Greenland later this week to measure the drapes. Mike would be well advised to stay away from small planes, or even large ones.
Yeah, that will be a fun trip.
Even more fun:
US Vice President JD Vance to join his wife in Greenland on Friday
“U.S. Vice President JD Vance said that he’s joining his wife on a Friday trip to Greenland, suggesting in an online video that global security is at stake.
“We’re going to check out how things are going there,” Vance said in a video shared Tuesday. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world.” …
Vance said that leaders in Denmark and North America had “ignored” Greenland for “far too long.” …”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/us-vice-president-vance-to-join-his-wife-on-friday-trip-to-greenland/
Is the Man With Three Names trying to provoke some kind of incident?
A couple of things occurred to me. Someone formed a Signal chat group of cabinet level officials and the Vice President that didn’t include the President. It’s possible that a ‘handler’ of one of the members of the Signal chat group added Jeff Goldberg to the chat group just to stir things up. Also possible that an adversary, such as Putin, added Jeff Goldberg to the chat group just to let us know of his capabilities.
All I’ve read says Waltz added Goldberg to the group
And Jamieson Greer the US Trade Representative is very plausibly the person he intended to add, as the US TR is on the list of additional participants who attend National Security Council meetings from time to time.
Security of shipping routes, and “Remuneration from freeloading Europeans” would be matters affecting his responsibilities.
Why aren’t the Saudis and other Arab nations also considered freeloaders?
But we have to assume that Jeff Goldberg was on Waltz’s contact list. I genuinely don’t know if people like him have routine off the record chats with reporters, and perhaps Goldberg can address that. Or maybe he’d rather not.
The Saudis pay Trump directly.
LIV Golf League sure makes that easy.
David Brooks
March 25, 2025 at 12:56 pm
Maybe. Another explanation is that Walz got a minion to give him Jamieson Greer’s number and the minion made the mistake when forwarding the number to Walz.
Jeffrey Goldberg does know Walz in the sense of having met him twice; so it didn’t strike Goldberg as odd that Walz would contact him : per bulwark interview
https://youtu.be/IxzV4Gc6cww
But that is rather more consistent from Greenberg pov with Walz getting hold of Goldberg’s number than Goldberg giving it to him.
Unless perhaps Goldberg was being coy about Walz being a source.
Oops an errant Greenberg got inserted where a Goldberg should be.
Apologies
Sorry, I haven’t read this yet, but because the names Patel and Bondi come up,
I’ll repost this from the other Post:
Atlantic staff writer Shane Harris re: GABBARD and RATCLIFFE:
https://bsky.app/profile/shaneharris.bsky.social/post/3ll66xcjvyc2u
March 24, 2025 at 10:10 PM
The witness list from the link:
GABBARD [DNI]
RATCLIFFE [CIA]
PATEL [FBI]
HAUGH [NSA/CSS]
KRUSE [DIA]
The same bunch will be testifying tomorrow in the
HOUSE:
3/26/25
10:00 AM ET Open Hearing Worldwide Threats
Here’s the committee hearing schedule for the
SENATE:
03/25/25
10:00 AM Open Hearing: Worldwide Threats
12:00 PM Closed Briefing: Intelligence Matters
03/26/25
2:30 PM Closed Briefing: Intelligence Matters
[I wonder what “Intelligence Matters” the SSCI will be discussing at 12:00 PM today.]
Marcy is listening to this Hearing and posting some thoughts on Bluesky, ie:
https://bsky.app/profile/emptywheel.bsky.social/post/3ll7kpkwzj22x
March 25, 2025 at 11:13 AM
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he had.
Oooooh. I read a comment this morning: Thank you, Mr. Goldberg for not sitting on this information and waiting two years to tell us in a book. I guess we’ll all see what shakes out.
Waltz: “Let’s get in a Signal chat to discuss this ONE incident”
Everyone else: “NBD, let’s chat.”
Added to the questions of Senator Hirono about history of sexual harassment, Democrats should now ask every Republican nominee about compliance with President Records Act, the use of Signal, the use of WhatsApp, and a few others, including FUTURE use.
As to use of Signal, Fox is all about ‘everybody does it even if you are not supposed to’ and ‘it’s totes safe.’
Don’t know anything about it myself but I have a daughter who works at NSA and she took the time to say,
‘Nope.’
Speaking of sexual harassment, I’ve shared here that I’m a survivor and this regime is often very triggery for me.
That said, Hegseth’s performance yesterday on the tarmac put a rock in my stomach and raised the alarm bells in my head.
Hegseth, like many alcoholics, has obvious difficulty managing his anger. As he was listening to the reporter’s question, he starts bobbing on his heels, his face starts to contort (he has the worst poker face), he fidgets with something in his pocket and you can see and feel the rage emanating from him.
About 28 seconds into most clips, where he mentions “Russia, Russia, Russia” in slamming the media, he leans in and bobs forward 4 times to I presume the reporter, a woman, asking the question. The menace is barely concealed and if I were in her position I think I would’ve felt as if he were trying to intimidate me.
There is no doubt in my mind watching him that he abused and threatened his ex-wife.
A leader of the DoD who cannot control their rage (It works if you work it Pete!) is an existential danger to our country’s national security.
Being emotionally incontinent on top of all his other disqualifying qualities will lead to an ugly downfall. I just pray he doesn’t take the country with him.
Just wait until he finds out the water he drinks is sapping and impurifying his precious bodily fluids!
Fancy Chicken, I share both a history of trauma and the experience of finding these professionally abusive men triggering. I last wrote about it here in regard to the Oval Office ambush of President Zelenskyy, which felt to me (I was shaking for hours afterwards) like witnessing a gang rape.
It is not coincidence that Trump hires so many abusers of women. (He seems to avoid those who harass and abuse men, but that may be under the radar.) It is a conscious strategy. They intend for us to feel triggered–always off-balance, under threat, unsafe. It allows Trump to step in to “protect” us…from himself and his henchmen, but only if we do as he says.
Like you, I see Hegseth as emotionally incontinent. Sometimes a “dry drunk” is worse than one still drinking; I learned this in childhood. And sometimes the non-alcoholic, like Trump, is worse than the substance abuser, because they are harder to explain and often better at explaining their actions to others and disqualifying your accusations.
And like you, I pray that these losers do not take the country with them.
As to use of Signal, Fox is all about ‘everybody does it even if you are not supposed to’ and ‘it’s totes safe.’
Don’t know anything about it myself but I have a daughter who works at NSA and she took the time to say,
‘Nope.’
Next time Hegseth claims anything, the press report can lead with “This is from a deceitful and highly discredited so-called federal official.” For the next four years.
They probably liked the automatic deletion feature. Consciousness of guilt, in advance? Those idiots are probably more interested in deleting evidence than protecting national security.
No one on that chat asked who JG was and why the chat was on a non-secure chat app? That’s appallingly unprofessional and undisciplined.
This is Strike 2 against Hegseth. The first strike was inviting Musk to review war plans with China. I’m dreading Strike 3.
And Stephen Miller shows up apparently to represent the President. And starts out with, “As I heard it…” instead of “The President has authorized this operation.”. Miller sounds like he is interpreting what Trump said rather than conveying Trump’s position. Was the Chat to discuss operational details of an authorized action or whether the operation should take place at all? Is this JD Vance getting well over his skis by questioning a decision already made?
And, why would we not ask for remuneration from all countries that benefit from open shipping lanes? And are we admitting that our military is just a bigger version of mercenary outfits run by Erik Prince?
Stephen Miller saying “as I heard it” rather than “the President authorized” strikes me as him giving Trump plausible deniability in case things went wrong. Trump probably told him to phrase it that way and being the obedient little sycophant that he is, he did it.
Plausible deniability is a good possibility.
But that kind of answer shouldn’t give anyone in that chat a high degree of comfort.
Actually, a strike against Yemen, based on DOUBLE HEARSAY of the “feelings” of the #MangoMussolini, because S.M. is saying S.M. was not in the Sit Room when the alleged feelings of the #FritoBandito were overheard.
Jeffrey Goldberg should sue Hegseth for defamation.
Goldberg would have to show he’s been damaged. Has he? Right now he looks pretty popular.
As far as I can tell he’s been damaged at least as much as Trump was damaged by George Stephanopoulos.
Just as Trump would’ve had to show damages by George Stephanopoulos.
“And when you’re
a starpresident, they let you do it. You can do anything — grab them by the p—-.“Hegseth would have broad immunity.
Plus, Goldberg has never looked better to most of those who were aware of him before. And all of those who weren’t.
Marcy did describe Jeff Goldberg as a neocon.
Re: earlofhuntington @ 7:12 pm
Somewhat in defense, Goldberg did write an article for Slate in 2008 admitting and apologizing for his Iraq War boosterism:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/03/i-didn-t-realize-how-incompetent-the-bush-administration-could-be.html
So maybe he’s not as much a true-blue “neocon” now as he used to be?
My knowledge of Goldberg is limited to what I see on PBS Washington Week and now Hegsethgate or whatever this will be known as.
People are saying Pete’s password is “47”. Easier to remember during a blackout.
No worries; Pete and Elon are VERY careful and would NEVER let your data get into the wrong hands.
Just looking at #4 — Steve Miller — a bit more closely.
The person who should be making that call is the White House Chief of Staff, not Miller.
Again I’d tie this back to Rubio’s new declaration that state secret should apply in the AEA declaration. Did the president actually sign the form?
Or if he did, did the president actually understand the operating details. SM clearly adds a few conditions which may or may not be actually coming from the President here.
I’d also point about that JD Vance comes off as even more annoying in private than in public. Others stayed in their lane.
But why is the White House Chief of Staff out of the loop? Because she’s a woman?
Why is she out of the loop? One possibility is because she VERBALLY told some of that group of clowns under no circumstances would she be typing messages into a private app with record retention law-breaking capabilities to discuss confidential material. You can continue to support awfulness (as she does) without being a colossal idiot
I think she shows up late in the conversation.
Ah, didn’t notice that. In that case never mind, they are all just colossal idiots.
I wonder if Stephen Miller contacted Wiles and said something like, you’d better jump on this chat because Vance is going off message?
Regarding the Rubio declaration, when read alongside current administration damage control, it makes for a head-spinning experience. In the former, Rubio (alongside Bondi & Noem) insists that even in camera production of transportation details already publicly reported could cause grave damage. In the latter there was no harm in fact and we don’t even know which specific lesson Waltz is supposed to have learned.
The Homeland Security Advisor is a regular attendee on the National Security Council.
S Miller is HSA.
Wiles was also in the chat in her WH CoS capacity
And not one of them mentioned any concerns about having a high level discussion about bombing runs on a commercial chat apps.
Is everything that unreal to them? How else explain this?
I still don’t understand why *this* specific group of people is having *this* discussion. If these are pre-decisional deliberations, what are they deciding? Whether to attack? When to attack? How do to the messaging? If this is about whether to attack, that decision is for POTUS to make, but he could delegate time and place to SecDef. If SecDef is deciding on the details, he can bring in whoever he wants, so why this particular group? There isn’t any actual deliberation about attack logistics. And as Dr. Wheeler notes, they seem to be accepting SM’s feels as a go-ahead from POTUS. The whole thing looks performative, like a bunch of showboaters flexing for each other, rather than professionals focusing on the serious business of conducting foreign policy by deadly military aggression
re 3. [Trump claims] his entire national security team may have committed a crime and also an embarrassing story was about to break but no one told him
I think it’s possible and even likely his flunkies would be too afraid to make daddy angry by admitting they screwed up.
Alternative explanation: Trump is getting much worse at getting his lies straight in his ailing brain, but his impromptu lying is still at least partially satisfactory. The man is having a cognitive collapse in front of the country, maybe some skills are getting worse than others.
All true but his response made it clear the reporter’s question really was the first he’d heard of it.
All true but his response made it clear the reporter’s question really was the first he’d heard of it.
He can say the complete opposite in two minutes. Why would you believe anything he says?
Donald Trump is an exceptionally accomplished liar. Making things clear is not what he does.
How is Trump going to handle JD Vance questioning him in such a public way, potentially even undermining him (in Trump’s view)? Even more depressing than DOJ or FBI doing nothing is that Congress also won’t open an investigation.
Trump doesn’t care Junior Division is the elected VP. Go too far astray, and he’ll be a covfefe boy in no time.
Perhaps cut out of the future discussions on his way to the kiddie table, but as VP he can’t be fired by Convict-1 / Krasnov, only impeached and convicted / removed. It’s not happening.
neither here nor there but: Is it that hard to believe that no one even read the TO: line? Is it hard to believe no one told trump about the situation in good time? As unintelligent, inexperienced, undisciplined, and obsessively focused on maintaining the good graces of their insufficient boss, I can see all of them burke at telling trump…for hours (hope springs eternal). They all know trump is lazy & may not find out. Goldberg blew it for them. Even if self-serving to a fault Vance & monster Miller noticed the gravity & stayed mute, would they have recognized opportunity for inner sanctum professional sabotage? I suspect both of them see everyone else as their inferiors so each relishes everyone else’s failures without concern for the effect on the USA.
There is no fix to the trump administration, whatever circumstances are self-induced by this gang.
How did these assholes get confirmed again? /s
Yes, they should resign in disgrace. So too should every senator voting to confirm them.
Excellent post. Thank you.
Hegseth is guilty of releasing classified information. Of course Hegseth blames the Goldberg.
Jack Teixeira, ex-airman is locked up, doing 15 years in federal prison for exposing classified national defense information on a social media platform.
Classified information leaked by Hegseth. Classified information stolen by Trump stored in his bathroom, bedroom and ballroom.
A solution – “lock them up” for violating the law.
They were cavalier and comfortable discussing war plans, so clearly this isn’t the first time that these clowns discussed national security issues on Signal. What else is out there? Who else has access? What other operations or assets are compromised?
“Biden OLD!”
This typo—“establishing a principles [sic] group”—is just too perfect: highlighting the thing wholly lacking in this affair and the people involved in it.
Yeah, right? “Establishing principles”–if only.
Fox’s The Five (not Tarlov, she’s the only one with a brain) are spinning the leak as “harmless.”
Here are some other MAGA examples of “harmless” behavior:
“I went to a Trump superspreader rally with no mask or vaccine and I didn’t get covid. Why did he make me sign a covid waiver?”
“I drive drunk all the time and I’ve never had an accident.”
“My daddy smoked cigars his whole life and never got cancer.”
(Shout out to Rush Limbaugh.)
Between the national security threats to our farmers and now this harrowing breech, it sounds like it is time to model the farmers in France and make sure the symbolic steaming piles are as big as this historic disregard to the security of our troops.
Link sent to Senator Ron Wyden who’s on the Intelligence Committee.
Based on the hearing Marcy is covering live on BlueSky, we’ll see some updates to this post such as:
https://bsky.app/profile/emptywheel.bsky.social/post/3ll7nc7u57c2k
March 25, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Crimes within crimes. But it does seem that Gabbard has heard of the Fifth Amendment.
Given that Gabbard was minimally involved in the chat it would seem from:
“One minute after that, “TG” (presumably Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, or someone masquerading as her) wrote, “Joe Kent for DNI.”
It’s not surprising that Gabard would say as little as possible.
Which isn’t to say she is not at fault for even that minimal contribution. But saying nothing is surely a wise option for her in the circumstances.
Something that stuck out for me in Goldberg’s article was the contempt for Europe. On this continent, that hasn’t gotten much notice. In the UK, yeah, it has.
Opinion piece today in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/25/stunning-signal-leak-reveals-depths-of-trump-administrations-loathing-of-europe
Perhaps special heat should be reserved for former senator Marco Rubio—who arguably is the single person in the chat not obviously unqualified for the role that he plays: the SoS. Did some combination of a “diffusion of responsibility” and of being overwhelmed by the extent of the other’s seeming child’s-play prevent him, as the one adult in the chat-room, from speaking up in advance? (Now, cue image of him disappearing into the couch.)
From Josh Marshall at TPM just now
“But I’ve learned there’s another level of the scandal: the DOD recently sent around an “OPSEC SPECIAL BULLETIN” specifically warning about a new Signal exploit using a phishing-like strategy to add ‘linked devices’ to Signal communications and thus listen in on encrypted messages. The bulletin specifically notes the use by “Russian professional hacking groups.”
Just amazing…
No worries; the Community Notes will make it all better.
/s
https://bsky.app/profile/davidfolkenflik.bsky.social/post/3ll7iqekjrk2y
“News: NPR’s Tom Bowman reports of a Pentagon-wide warning about Signal’s security vulnerability – one week ago.”
Warning embedded in the link.
I keep thinking about time when FLYNN [probably on speaker phone AND in the room with TRUMP] talked to KISLYAK during the 2016 transition period, AND while people [KUSHNER] were trying to establish secret secure channels …like through the actual Russian compound in Maryland.
link https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-envoy-steve-witkoff-signal-text-group-chat-russia-putin/
I don’t see any news outlet crediting Olga Lautman for the information on Witkoff’s location. She posted this last night on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/olgalautman.bsky.social/post/3ll663snbc224
She has also been posting a daily Trump Tyranny Tracker.
It was available in other places. I, for example, linked back to a contemporaneous report, which is what is linked above.
Sorry, Marcy – I certainly had no intention to impugn your meticulous sourcing and attribution.
As top Trump aides sent texts on Signal, flight data show a member of the group chat was in Russia https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-envoy-steve-witkoff-signal-text-group-chat-russia-putin/ Joanne Stocker, Emmet Lyons
Updated on: March 25, 2025 1:04 PM EDT [emphasis added]
O f course Witkoff was in Russia! Someone had to be–it’s so much easier to share classified intel that way. You know, without all the pesky OPSEC getting in the middle. Witkoff could just whip out his cell and scroll.
Also working on the timing, Fred Wellman wrote:
https://bsky.app/profile/fpwellman.bsky.social/post/3ll7qm5mra22o
March 25, 2025 at 12:59 PM
That links to:
It’s a thousand times worse than you think
Their little group chat is the tip of a truly historic intelligence breach
FPWellman Mar 25, 2025
He’s calling HEGSETH “Whiskeyleaks”.
There’s also an answer to something I’ve been wondering
[I can never keep all this straight]:
He shouldn’t have done that – most people would assume that every room in the Kremlin is bugged eight ways from Sunday.
Oh NOooooo!
“What you have to understand about Pete Hegseth copying and pasting war plans into Signal is that it almost certainly means he’s got classified documents on his personal UNSECURE devices. Signal isn’t on a secure device…are our war plans on his personal devices” @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/fpwellman.bsky.social/post/3ll5nm46ixk2w
Hegseth’s phone is on par with Trump’s bathroom. *smh*
It’s all on theme:
Our national security is in the toilet.
No one in the admin cares about our troops or humint.
That Whiskey Pete Hegseth and Trump’s entire national security team were so comfortable using an insecure, commercial digital messaging service implies that they do it All The Time. If so, they were probably relying on Signal’s auto-delete function to keep them out of trouble. Lots of potential crimes there.
As for Trump dong a Sgt. Schultz, his COS and deputy COS were on those chats. He sure as hell knew.
As for JD Vance fantasizing about getting Europeans to pay for a set of attacks on Houthis, he must think no American ships transit the Red Sea. Vance has learned to mimic Trump in all the ways Trump would admire, were Vance not such a coffee boy. I don’t suppose he thought to get European countries agreement that Trump would fleece them before he launched the attacks. Didn’t think so.
“That Whiskey Pete Hegseth and Trump’s entire national security team were so comfortable using an insecure, commercial digital messaging service implies that they do it All The Time.”
In this morning’s hearing, John Ratcliffe testified that Signal is loaded on government issued computers, so it’s okay to use it. Astounding if true.
Was that done by Elmo’s peeps?
Loaded by whom and with whose permission? It isn’t what I would call secure.
Now that DOD has issued a warning about Russians and Chinese finding a way to get into Signal chats, will they uninstall Signal, hope that no one falls for a phishing scam, or just give Russia and China government access? Maybe that’s what Elon was doing the other day when he visited SecDef Whiskey Pete.
BTW Was the Usha/Waltz end of winter vacation trip to Greenland, where they are sure to receive a warm welcome, arranged before or after the discovery that JG was a reporter and JD Vance was questioning Trump’s decision on Yemen?
CBS and Politico are both saying that JD is joining his wife on the Greenland assault. I hope they are met at the airport and sent packing back to MAL North.
I would greet them at whatever forsaken airport they land at and have a crowd of locals throwing chunks of ice and snowballs at them as they debark.
I really want the people at that dogsled race to tell them “Here’s your parkas, there’s your sled and team, we’ll see you at the finish line”.
The other problem is that the multiple versions of the same conversation allows Russia and the PRC to determine the characteristics of the Signal encryption, like a cyber Rosetta Stone. There is a reason to use a SCIF and to have physical firewalls to these places.
Signal should not be on a govt computer. If it is, it should never be set to auto-delete. But, yes, who loaded it and with what variations from standard? For what purposes?
I’m calling him Drumpf’s Drunky Flunky.
This fiasco also says that no aide to these clowns is more competent or well-informed than these bozos. Principals do not normally arrange their own chat groups.
CIA Director – “I don’t recall.” Screams volumes of how incompetent and reckless these people are.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff questions security officials on Signal group chat | ‘An embarrassment’
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg1jbbVl7nc)
Just wow. *That’s* how you do it.
Remember this memo Susie Wiles sent out before the nominee hearings? I guess security is all about appearances with these wise guys. And note that nobody speaks for the President. I guess that’s better than when Ed Martin said noone. So, now I’m wondering if this means Stephen Miller is nobody…
“Team Trump Warns Cabinet Nominees to Keep Their Mouths Shut” – The New Republic, 12/31/24
“While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo obtained by The New York Post.
“Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,” she continued.
https://newrepublic.com/post/189750/team-trump-warns-cabinet-nominees-social-media
Just a reminder of what others think of as Susie Wiles’ modus operandi:
“Information was power. Power to help. Or power to hurt. With information, she could solve problems, and she could cause problems, and she even, people who watched and worked with Wiles began to suspect, could try to cause problems she could then solve — little fires she could start and then let burn or put out.”
“She leaked, they thought, in an effort to be both of singular value to the principal and also to the press. It’s tempting to cite specific examples, but they couldn’t prove it was her with absolute certainty then, and they still can’t now, and so neither can I — but something popped up in the pages of the press, and who but her could have known?”
“What is definite, though, is that people thought she was doing this — first a few people, then more people, and across administrations….”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/26/susie-wiles-trump-desantis-profile-00149654
If only Stephen Miller truly *were* Nobody. But insider accounts have it that Miller–not Elon Musk–is truly the acting president, the one making policy decisions and overseeing their implementation. For example, it was Miller who insisted those planes full of kidnapped Venezuelan-or-not immigrants take off in violation of Judge Boasberg’s order, although he seems fine with Kristi Noem taking the heat for that.
Besides golf, who knows what goes on in Trump’s days/mind? His public comments mostly indicate confusion and/or ignorance when it comes to pressing matters, unless you count broad and generally empty general declarations. He notoriously couldn’t care less about policy. So it makes sense that Miller would take advantage of a press spotlight trained on Elon, in order to achieve as much evil as possible himself.
And as you know, Savage Librarian, Stephen Miller and Susie Wiles–out of sight and out of mind for most–can accomplish a great deal of evil with skill and efficiency.
As you said, Trump couldn’t care less about policy. His interests are purely self serving. The confusion and chaos that Musk and Miller provide are a distraction from the corruption that is going on behind the scenes. Miller (when not pulling wings off of flies) does care about policy and is taking full advantage of this opportunity to install his brand of immoral, racist, hateful policies.
Setting aside the involvement of the reporter, what’s the full list of security crimes and potential crimes here?
* not in a SCIF
* comms using a non-approved comms app
* using personal phones
* not preserving records
* sharing classified information insecurely
Jeff Goldberg’s involvement is the smallest problem illustrated by this fiasco, but it is how we came to hear about it.
I’ll throw on reason number 8. Or maybe it just makes reason number 6 that much worse. Although I had totally forgotten this, Trump fired the Archivist of the United States and replaced her with …. Marco Rubio. The acting Archivist was in the chat.
We know a Korean king almost a thousand years ago fell off a horse and told people “don’t tell the historians”, because the historians were told that from enough credible sources that they (likely capriciously) wrote it down for preservation. But in the age of almost perfect digital record-keeping technology and strict transparency laws, there are and will continue to be a nontrivial percentage of voters who will claim to be just fine with this state of affairs, perpetrated as you point out by roles whose sole duty is to prevent it. Disheartening.
Focus needs, of course, to be on the behavior of the Principals. But, by way of “notice and accountability”, the harm that accrues (in this, and every area that Trump’s Cabinet touches) must reflect back on the Republican Party that voted to put the “Principles” in place.
“We told you so.”
Smiley would have had Peter Guillam retire the lot of them.
Shameful.
Smiley’s successor would have retired the lot permanently.
Just read the NY Times’ annotated version of The Chat. The annotations are rather restrained.
The notes about JD Vance are particularly circumspect. They note that JD Vance has been publicly critical of Europe, as if that mitigates the fact that Vance was criticizing the President’s decision and trying to reverse it.
I saw an interview with John Bolton on CNN yesterday. He thought that the entire chat should be considered classified because it exposes disagreements among the principals and their thinking.
And, to me, with my corporate background, it also exposes dysfunction. A subordinate who disagrees with a decision made by the CEO first must go to the CEO to explain the disagreement and, if the CEO can’t be persuaded otherwise, the subordinate has three choices – support the decision to subordinates, go to the Board, or resign.
As Marcy says, here are the DETAILS:
https://bsky.app/profile/emptywheel.bsky.social/post/3llbs43yrok27
March 26, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Links to:
Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal
The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor in chief.
Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris March 26, 2025, 8:19 AM ET
Marcy has a post up about this:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/26/clean-on-opsec-pete-hegseth-spilled-specific-details-of-an-attack-in-advance/