The Signal Leak Is Too Big to Sweep Under the Rug
Rather than admitting their colossal mistake, Trump administration officials are quickly falling back on their preferred tactics of denial and deflection.
Suddenly not so chatty.
Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North AmericaIt was only a matter of time before President Donald Trump’s national security appointees proved just how unserious and unprepared they are for their posts. Now, just two months into his second term, we’ve got “Signalgate” — a reckless conversation about war plans over a commercial messaging app with a journalist (inadvertently invited) reading along.
The administration wants to somehow blame that journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief. (Trump on Tuesday called the award-winning Goldberg “a total sleazebag.”) But even the attention-dominating Trump administration will have a hard time shifting the focus away from the extraordinary security failure of top officials, particularly National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who reportedly initiated the group chat and accidentally included Goldberg, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who provided sensitive details on an impending March 15 strike on the Houthis.