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I was already writing an edition of the “What Matters” newsletter Monday about how President Donald Trump’s choice of businessmen and political allies to shake up and downsize government work has also created an amateur-hour atmosphere.
But all the examples I’d gathered pale in comparison to the revelations in a new story published Monday by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg with the headline, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.”
More specifically, the official doing the texting of the war plans to a journalist appears to be Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed by the Senate despite serious questions about his lack of official experience – Hegseth’s most recent job before taking charge of the US military was as a Fox News host.
The story features all of the bold-faced names in charge of national security for Trump.
Somehow, Goldberg appears to have been added by national security adviser Mike Waltz to a group chat on the private, encrypted messaging platform Signal.
The group included profiles that seemed to be associated with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House adviser Stephen Miller, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and others.
A spokesman for the National Security Council later confirmed that the message chain appeared to be real and said they were investigating how Goldberg’s number was added.
The discussions included a moment where Vance expressed opposition to a potential strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen to clear up shipping routes through the Suez Canal because, as Vance notes, Europe, whose trade is more reliant on the Suez Canal than the US, would benefit more than the US.
One US company that did feel the sting of the attacks on shipping routes is Tesla, led by chief US government cost-cutter Elon Musk. Tesla was forced to shut down production at its Berlin Gigafactory for a time in January because the attacks caused supply-chain problems.
Vance also wondered whether President Donald Trump understood how a strike to ease global trade would contradict his America First policies, urging the other top officials to hold off on the strikes
Goldberg, doubtful that top US officials would accidentally add him to a chat discussing sensitive and classified data about a forthcoming military attack, thought the messages might be an elaborate troll until Hegseth transmitted the detailed war plans and said the strike was imminent.
A few hours later, Goldberg searched on X and learned the strikes were occurring. The national security principals responded to news of the strikes’ success with emojis and congratulations. Goldberg subsequently removed himself from the chat.
There are so many questions here.
Why were these officials utilizing a messaging app known for its disappearing messages and run by a private nonprofit?
It could run afoul of both laws that require the retention of records and, more importantly, laws related to classified information. There are clearly stated protocols for discussing classified information.
Why is Hegseth so comfortable transmitting war plans in an unclassified setting?
We don’t know the exact nature of what Hegseth sent; Goldberg did not print it. His article does say it included “information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Will there be consequences for this apparent breach?
This is the type of breach that might normally lead to firings or jail time. Normally, Congress, which is supposed to provide checks and balances on the executive branch, would quickly launch an investigation of what seems to be such a drastic security breach. It’s not clear that will happen now, when Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and Senate.
What about the obvious irony here?
When Trump was initially asked about The Atlantic’s report at the White House, he criticized the magazine but said he was not familiar with the report. Trump should be familiar with how things are supposed to work when it comes to sensitive material, since he was charged with mishandling classified data after he left the White House in 2021 and before he won the 2024 election. The case was dismissed by a judge he appointed.
Plus, Trump repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during the Obama administration, particularly she was criticized for discussion of classified material in email. Now, the leaders of his entire national security team appear to have been on an unclassified system discussing very sensitive material.
What other examples are there?
There are many examples of a lack of experience by an official or doing things in nontraditional ways leading to problems.
Trump’s top official negotiating peace efforts for the Middle East and Ukraine, Steve Witkoff, is not a diplomat but a real estate developer. That could help explain how Witkoff all but repeated Russian talking points in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
The Social Security numbers of former government officials were released in a dump of previously classified data that was released in a rush. The first names of recently hired CIA agents were included in an unclassified email sent to the White House.
Anti-diversity initiatives at the Pentagon scrubbed, for a time, webpages that mentioned the military career of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in professional baseball.
There were reports last week that Musk, who has major business interests in China, could get a Pentagon briefing with information on China. Trump quickly clarified that Musk would get no such briefing, but the Pentagon launched a leak investigation that will apparently include polygraph tests.
There were plenty more examples from earlier in Trump’s administration, such as when Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushed for the firing of nuclear safety officials and then the Department of Energy had to call them back to duty. Part of this is what Trump’s supporters wanted, perhaps, when they voted for a candidate who promised to “drain the swamp.” Nobody voted for Goldberg to be texted war plans.
