This week, the Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that Donald Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz had accidentally added him to a “war plan” groupchat on Signal. Goldberg stayed on the chat just long enough to see that it was actually real and that Pete Hegseth and JD Vance are complete idiots, along with everyone else in Trump’s administration. In the before times, this would have been a huge scandal which would ended several careers, notably the careers of Mike Waltz and Pete Hegseth. Not so much – Donald Trump won’t fire them because A) he doesn’t care, B) he’s not paying attention, C) he doesn’t know how groupchats work and D) he’s a white supremacist who surrounds himself with other white supremacists and they follow their own bonkers logic. Which is how a drunk rapist in charge of the Defense budget announced a bombing on an unsecure groupchat and still has his job. That being said, there are some knives out for Hegseth.
The White House is publicly defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he texted sensitive military information in a Signal chat. But behind the scenes, administration insiders are starting to express doubts about the Pentagon chief’s judgment.
Officials agree national security adviser Mike Waltz, who accidentally invited a journalist to a group chat with senior leaders, could more easily take the fall for a scandal that has embarrassed the administration — which may end up sparing Hegseth his job.
But Republican hawks, Pentagon officials and even some inside the White House now believe Hegseth also messed up by sending likely classified details from his phone. And that has the potential to undermine his credibility in the administration.
Because Trump clearly likes and has publicly exonerated Hegseth, “you’re not going to hear a huge public outcry,” said a senior GOP official on Capitol Hill who is close to the White House. “But, privately, there is a lot of concern about his judgment, more than with Waltz.”
Even for a Pentagon chief who has copied Trump’s pugilistic style — down to his Sharpie signature and campaign-style videos — Hegseth’s growing pile of mistakes are getting noticed, according to four officials and two people in touch with the administration.
“The problem is this is another example of inexperience,” said a person close to the White House, who like others, was granted anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive issue. “What happens when Hegseth needs to manage a real crisis?”
“What happens when Hegseth needs to manage a real crisis” – I like that they didn’t say “if” but “when.” Because Hegseth is absolutely going to get drunk and start a war and Trump will be like “sure, whatever” and the Signal groupchat will be like “hell yeah” and Bob Woodward will be like “I’m so glad I was accidentally added to this chat, this will go in a book I’m writing which will be published in five years.”
Meanwhile, a DHS employee accidentally sent classified ICE documents to a journalist and now that person has been put on administrative leave and she’s going to have her security clearance revoked. All while Waltz and Hegseth get to keep their jobs, huh?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
