11 thoughts on “Like It Or Not, “Signalgate” Explodes Into Major Political Crisis For Trump”

1. “Maliciously incompetent” describes Trump and his choice of subordinates.  

   It’s a week for Trump’s national security team

   Texting war plans to a journalist was an astonishing security breach. The emojis were bad, too.

   But beyond the intelligence lapse that led the Trump aides to provide the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg with the targets, weapons and timing of forthcoming military strikes in Yemen, the contents of the Signal chat make it plain for the world to see what our allies feared and our foes hoped: The United States is being run by a bunch of clownish amateurs.

   They misspelled the word “principals.” They attacked Europeans as “free-loading” and “PATHETIC.” They made clear the top message they wanted to come out of the military attack was that “Biden failed.” The highest-ranking national security officials gave evident deference to the deputy White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller.

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   1. I agree with you on 99% of what you’re upset about. But I think on two points, not something to ding them on:

      1. Is there anyone here who has never misspelled a word while writing a message on their phone? It happens.
      2. Every president has someone who can shut down a discussion. Regardless of his title at any given time, if Harry Hopkins said “this is what FDR wants,” that was the end of the discussion.

      On the rest – agree with you.

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      1. I was quoting Dana Milbank above.  I agree that “principles” vs. “principals” was a weak start to the paragraph, but I included it for continuity.

         As for Stephen Miller — some day, there may need to be another tribunal on the order of the Nuremberg Trials to bring members of the Trump administration to justice. If we still have a democracy, of course.

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      2. Obviously, "Regradless" was written that way to prove a point?

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         1. Inadvertantly  

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2. The initial exchange is inexcusable.

   The efforts to deny, to blame the messenger, to lie about the content of the exchange make it clear the "covreup" is probably worse than the initial offense.

   The implications being spun out are, if anything, even worse…

   • despite specific warnings not to use Signal from people in their organizations, they used it and NO ONE objected.
   • there have been other strings/chats on Signal, 
   • at least some of those involved appear to have been using personal mobile phones, not their government phones
   • there was no "official" record being maintained, as required by several laws or policies on government communication
   • relevant military chain of command AND the Joint Chiefs were NOT a part of the group
   • actions were taken WITHOUT clear command from *resident Trump. Stephen Miller, who has NO official role in international relations ("serving as the 12th United States homeland security advisor and White House deputy chief of staff for policy since 2025"), apparently was the source clarifying what the *resident said. 

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3. Really, nothing at all to see here, folks.

   Just our ruthlessly efficient, bigly, beautiful DEI* administration doing their very bestest at Making Amerihahaha Great Again!!

   (* Dumb, evil, and incompetent)

   Hell, if I were Chuck Schumer I’d have voted to expand this president’s executive powers, too!?!?!?

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4. Portnoy's Complaint…..

   Dave Portnoy on Signal scandal: 'Somebody has to go down'

    

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5. Rep. Jason Crow gets some notice at Daily Kos:

   ‘Outrageous’: Watch this congressman shred Trump team for war plans leak

   Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado tore into the Trump administration during a House Intelligence Committee Wednesday, as more details emerged regarding the dangerous leaked war plans scandal. 

   “I spent my life in service to this country. I deployed three times to combat in service to this nation. I learned in that time in service that responsibility is core to leadership. You accept responsibility when things go wrong. You admit mistakes. You set the standard from the very top,” he said.

   Unfortunately, the standard for the Trump Mad!-ministration IS being set from the very top.

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6. This will almost get settled in 3 years. When it comes to Trump, and his minions, justice involving confidential information doesn't happen. They will claim, as they did with the documents in Maralago, that there is no confidential information but to prosecute the charge we'll have to prove the confidentiality in public court which we can't do if the info is confidential, right?! Then, in 3 years, Hegseth will announce his candidacy for US President and charges will be dropped because we can't influence an election.

   It's amazing how justice is slow and methodical when it comes to Trump and those who favor Trump while it is swift and brutal when it comes ot the rest of us.

   This is bullshit.

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7. Putin is beyond pleased with his best asset and most useful idiot inhabiting the White House.

   If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age.

   In its first two months, the Trump administration has made move after move that exposes the government to penetration by foreign intelligence services. It’s not just the group chat about forthcoming military strikes that The Atlantic revealed on Monday — although that was, to be clear, as audacious and ridiculous a security breach as there has been in decades. The administration short-circuited the process for conducting background checks on top officials, turned tens of thousands of people with access to government secrets into disgruntled ex-employees and announced it was lowering its guard against covert foreign influence operations. It installed one of Elon Musk’s satellite internet terminals on the roof of the White House, seemingly to bypass security controls, and gave access to some of the government’s more sensitive systems to a teenager with a history of aiding a cybercrime ring, who goes by the nickname Big Balls.

   Major adversaries pray for this level of chaos, confusion and opportunity. A secretive Chinese network is trying to recruit fired U.S. government workers. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service states with “high confidence” that foreign adversaries are trying to “capitalize” on the Trump administration’s mass layoffs. But the Chinese Ministry of State Security or the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate aren’t the only ones who stand to profit from the Trump administration’s disregard for even minimal operational security. Intelligence gathering has become easier for everyone.

   So if you’re running a foreign intelligence service, relax. You’ve got time. This fiasco could’ve been a wake-up call to the Trump team, an opportunity to overhaul their security procedures and maybe stop courting disaster on quite so many fronts. This administration has decided to go hard in the other direction. “Nobody’s texting war plans,” Mr. Hesgeth told reporters, after being exposed for doing just that. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”

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