EDITORIAL: The Trump administration is a mistake

A serious security breach that in ordinary times would be an ultimate disaster for the White House, will probably be of little consequence, and just another troubling incident in a political universe that is topsy-turvy.

Here is the deal: Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, was inadvertently included in a Signal chat called “Houthi PC Small Group” along with 18 other members of top Trump cabinet members. They were assembled to discuss war plans for U.S. attacks on the Houthi armed group in Yemen.

During an interview on Radio Atlantic, Goldberg recounts how he was contacted and what transpired during the meeting. “I was in Salzburg, Austria, and what I’m thinking is not much, because in my line of work, that wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen,” he said. “Well, I am always cautious about people reaching out across social media or messaging apps. I don’t assume that they’re the person that the name suggests, but I would have to say that I was glad, also, and I was hoping that it was the actual Michael Waltz, because I’d like to be in regular contact with Michael Waltz for all the obvious journalistic reasons.

“And then I got added to a group, a Signal group — you know, a text-messaging chat group —called ‘Houthi PC small group.’ PC I know from covering White House issues, you know: ‘Principals Committee,’ basically the top leaders of Cabinet departments generally associated with national-security issues, and then a message from Mike Waltz talking about how he’s putting together this PC small group to talk about the Houthis because something’s gonna be happening over the next 72 hours. That’s when I sort of think — I mean, honestly, the first thing I thought was: I’m really being spoofed. Like, somebody is — this is a hoax. This is a state or non-state actor, probably a non-state actor, looking to entrap, embarrass, whatever word you wanna use, a journalist.”

Suddenly, and surprisingly, Goldberg was part of the top security session with Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence. He was the proverbial fly on the wall in a discussion about war plans against an enemy. Some of you are old enough to remember when you picked up the phone and listened to your party line. Of course, this is false equivalency since hearing your neighbors’ gossip is an error of the phone company while this mistake is one contrived by a key Trump advisor.

You can go online to see or hear the entire disclosure, one that the Trump administration at first admitted was a mistake and then brushed aside as more ado about nothing and that the attacks on the Houthis were successful. At least one of the cabinet members stated that Trump didn’t know about any of this, and he, too, said he was not aware. But Trump’s ignorance about things is nothing new, and what he doesn’t know would fill volumes. And, by the way, Musk was not at the session?

More fallout is sure to come as Trump and his cohort will blame the whole blunder on the media and Goldberg, that will come as no surprise, and we predict someone in the administration will have to fall on the sword.

Yes, it’s an extraordinarily stupid mistake but the entire Trump administration is a mistake, and let’s blame the 77 million voters who put him back in office.