Trump’s Team Got Sloppy—And It Could Have Been Much Worse
What's being reported in The Atlantic is incredibly worrisome.
In what has to rank among the dumber self-inflicted scandals of the modern era, it turns out a member of Trump’s inner circle accidentally looped a national journalist into a private group chat discussing military operations.
Yes, really.
Former Congressman Mike Waltz reportedly invited The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg into a Signal group chat where several Trump officials were actively discussing the U.S. military's operations against the Houthis in Yemen.
To his credit, Goldberg didn’t publish anything at the time. He waited until after the strikes began. That’s the kind of journalistic restraint that, frankly, we can’t always count on in Washington—and certainly not something an administration should gamble on.
It’s Not a Leak—It’s a Misstep, and a Potentially Costly One
Let’s be clear here: there’s no evidence (yet) that top-secret war plans were laid out in detail, and no indication that anything classified made it into the chat. But the fact that this discussion happened in any unsecured channel—with a member of the press in the room, no less—is sloppy and unacceptable.
And the excuse of “we’re doing things differently” doesn’t cut it here. There’s a difference between cutting through bureaucratic red tape and tossing common sense out the window.
Look, I understand the Trump administration is filled with people who are sick of business as usual. Many of them got into politics because the traditional way of doing things wasn’t working—and in a lot of ways, that instinct has served them well.
But some procedures exist for a reason, and military operations are one of them. No one’s accidentally getting added to a secure, official briefing room. But a group chat on an encrypted app? That’s a little too easy to mess up—and someone messed up big.
The Response? Not Great
In the wake of the story, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responded not with accountability but with deflection. He called the story “mischaracterized,” took shots at Goldberg’s credibility, and dismissed The Atlantic altogether.
Fine. Maybe he’s right on some of that. But that’s not the point.
The scandal here isn’t about what was said in that chat—it’s about where it was said and who was accidentally invited to hear it. Even if you believe this was overblown, the optics are terrible. And no one should be comfortable with military conversations happening in a group chat with a mainstream journalist accidentally included.
Someone Needs to Take This Seriously
The gut instinct here is to call for resignations. I just don’t know who specifically is responsible for this insane situation. But I do know this: there are people on Trump’s team who know better (like Susie Wiles), and they should be the ones sounding the alarm internally. This is the kind of mistake that doesn’t just embarrass an administration—it can genuinely cause problems in real-time.
Do you want to win the trust of the American people? Then act like a government that knows how to handle sensitive matters. And maybe—just maybe—don’t invite the editor of The Atlantic into your Signal chat.