At this point it is blatantly obvious that Donald Trump and his cabinet are a bunch of incompetent buffoons, but the extent of their idiocy seems to reach new heights with each passing day with their latest apparent blunder leaving many wondering if the government itself is a national security concern.
The Trump administration has been accused of accidentally sharing top secret war plans in the most comically foolish way – they supposedly added a journalist to their group chat by accident – you can’t even make this stuff up.
What happened
According to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, he was aware of the U.S. plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen a full two hours before the news was announced to the world. He claims he knew as much because on March 11th he was added to a Signal group chat, in which sensitive information was shared, by Mike Waltz.
Goldberg claims that the group chat contained 18 individuals from Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, even the VP, JD Vance, was in the chat. The group discussed Houthi targets with Vance deviating from the president’s guidance (something which he has never done publicly). Of course, Goldberg was skeptical that these were the real individuals at first and he remained skeptical about the situation until March 15th.
What happened on March 15th?
Goldberg doesn’t quote the text verbatim due to the sensitive information contained within, however, he claims that Hegseth shared “operational details of forthcoming strikes in Yemen,” at 11:44 AM on March 15th. Two hours later, posts on X were reporting explosions heard in Sanaa, the country’s capital.
This was enough for Goldberg to conclude the group chat was the real deal, so shortly afterwards he left.
Was the group chat real?
The strikes in Yemen confirm the text details shared by Goldberg, but the reporter also followed up by emailing Waltz. He received a response from the spokesman for the National Security Council, Brian Hughes which read, “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Donald Trump has also addressed the situation, defending Waltz and telling NBC, “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man.” So Yes. The group chat was genuine. As for Trump’s comment, supposed sources have claimed that the president is actually furious with Waltz.
Why this is a national security concern
This is deeply unsettling considering the level of confidentiality you’d expect from government officials. Signal is an encrypted messaging service, but it is not approved by the government for sharing such sensitive information. The use of the app might have even violated the Espionage Act – the government has specific facilities where officials are expected to go to discuss military plans securely, this was far from secure.
Waltz also set messages up to disappear after a certain amount of time according to Goldberg, this violates federal records law. The sheer level of incompetence on display here would be funny if it weren’t so disturbing.
Published: Mar 25, 2025 11:08 am