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The most important part of the Signal snafu remains the fact that the secretary of defense posted sensitive information about a forthcoming strike in a Signal chat organized by the national security adviser that inadvertently included The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.
The hunt for accountability, to the extent it occurs, will rightly focus on the security breach and whether laws were violated.
But there’s a lot more to this story and some interesting lessons to be learned from the dynamics of the national security team President Donald Trump has built for his second term.
Here some key points to consider from the 18-person group chat.
We already knew that Vice President JD Vance does not hold Europe in high regard after he lectured European officials about democracy and free speech during this year’s Munich Security Conference.
That disdain entered the “Houthi PC small group” when Vance opposed striking the Houthis in Yemen because, in his view, it would benefit Europe more than the US.
More European than American trade travels through the Suez Canal, Vance argued, and he said he worried Americans wouldn’t understand why the US was striking in Yemen. It’s a valid concern for a White House that promised “America first” foreign policy.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance said, according to the posts.
Take your pick of European policies Vance might be referring to.
Trump is in the midst of threatening steep tariffs on European goods, misidentifying the European value-added tax structure as a tax on Americans. The strikes, on the other hand, were meant to open up shipping routes relied on by Europeans (and multinational corporations such as Tesla).
Trump has criticized European countries for not spending enough on their own defense and promised to stop subsidizing their security.
“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” Vance said in the chat.
Vance also mentioned a possible spike in oil prices at a time when Trump has promised to bring oil prices down.
Instead of immediate strikes, Vance suggested waiting a month to give time to explain to Americans why they were necessary.
We know that Trump was involved in discussions about the strikes because he is quoted as saying they would be most valuable to “send a message.”
We don’t know if he heard about Vance’s opposition.
In one extremely telling post, Hegseth said he understood the concerns and would support Vance raising them with Trump.
“I fully share your loathing of European free-loading,” Hegseth said later. “It’s PATHETIC.” But then he argued the US should carry out the strikes because it was the only country “on our side of the ledger” that could make them happen.
There’s some interesting phrasing in a statement Vance’s spokesman gave to Goldberg.
“The Vice President’s first priority is always making sure that the President’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations,” he said.
Does that mean Vance expected someone else to raise the concerns?
“Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy,” his spokesman told Goldberg. “The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.”
Stephen Miller spoke for Trump and ended debate
This story should put to rest any doubts about how important a voice Stephen Miller is in the White House. Presuming he is the “SM” in the group chat, he essentially ended the conversation the day before the strike by channeling Trump.
“As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return.”
Perhaps the most intriguing mystery is what the US expected in return for these strikes and how or whether that demand was transmitted to Europe and Egypt.
Here’s what Miller said:
“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.”
Did the Europeans and Egyptians know these strikes were coming or were they expected to “remunerate” after the fact? What is the going rate for drone strikes against Houthi rebels shutting down shipping lanes?
The error in organizing the chat was national security adviser Mike Waltz’s, but the larger violation may have been by Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Waltz referred to emailing details to the group’s “High side” accounts, which means their email system for sensitive data, suggesting he realized some information should not be placed on Signal.
Goldberg did not reprint all of the messages sent by Ratcliffe and Hegseth, but he wrote that one in particular from Hegseth was “shockingly reckless” because it included “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Both Hegseth and Ratcliffe have since said they did not post classified material.
Hegseth is quoted as pushing for the strikes against the Houthis, which killed 53 people, according to the Yemeni health ministry. But the deadly strike was not about the Houthis, Hegseth said.
“I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered,” he said. At another point, Hegseth argued the messaging around the strike needed to focus on Joe Biden and blaming the former president for failure to more forcefully address the issue.
Before the strike, at least two officials used a prayer emoji, according to Goldberg.
After the strike, as the Cabinet officials congratulated each other, they used the same emojis anyone else might use in a text message.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s emissary to Ukraine and Middle East peace talks, posted five emoji: two hands praying, a flexed bicep and two American flags.
🙏 🙏 💪 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
Waltz posted a fist, an American flag and fire.
👊 🇺🇸 🔥
Hegseth, who appears to have posted the strike plan to Signal, twice refers to the importance of operations security, or OPSEC.
“We are currently clean on OPSEC,” he sends to the chat that included a journalist.
And, of course, for those who remember the email server scandal that hurt Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, there is now a role reversal as Democrats call for accountability while many Republicans are doing the opposite.
It should also be pointed out that the Trump administration is currently arguing in federal court that it does not have to share information about deported suspected gang members with a federal judge because to do so would jeopardize state secrets.
