The Signal War Chat fiasco was not just a minor glitch. It was a reckless security breach that could have put the lives of American fighter pilots at greater risk. War plans -- including strike targets, weapons systems, and precise timing -- were discussed in an unsecured Signal group chat, with an unauthorized person included in the conversation.
National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had invited Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat without realizing it. It’s an error so egregious we have to either laugh or cry. If you choose the former, you might try the Daily Show’s tweet:
“So tired of these texts from politicians that are like “Will you donate $5?” and “Please sign our petition” and “TOP SECRET CLASSIFIED: POTUS has decided to bomb Yemen at 0545 on March 26, 2025”
Then there’s comedian Ginny Hogan, who found the Atlantic piece a bit dry, and wished they’d spilled the beans to a Buzzfeed editor instead:
“I would have much preferred to read ‘15 Emojis Senior Trump Officials Used to Celebrate Bombing Yemen that Only 90’s Kids Will Understand’”
For a time, Atlantic editor Goldberg withheld key details to avoid compromising national security. But when Trump officials denied the leak and smeared his reporting, The Atlantic released the full chat logs, proving the extent of the breach. The level of detail revealed that these messages posed a direct danger to U.S. military personnel carrying out those missions.
Journalist Aaron Rupar notes how history repeats itself, but at increasingly high levels of stupidity:
“It’s like Watergate, only in this version Nixon directly mails the tapes to Woodward and Bernstein.”
Trump has fired over 83,000 people from the Veterans Administration and hundreds of thousands of public servants from other agencies, yet no one has been held accountable for this flagrant breach. Instead, Trump shrugged it off, calling Waltz a “good man” who had “learned a lesson.” That’s not accountability. That’s a cover-up.
This failure put American military personnel at greater risk. Demand that not only Michael Waltz, but also Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, and every official involved in the chat resign or be fired.
Among the others involved in this irredeemable failure of national security were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Shockingly, real estate mogul Steve Witkoff was also included in the chat -- while he was physically in Moscow meeting with Vladimir Putin. That means U.S. military strategy was leaking in real time to someone inside Russia itself.
Instead of taking responsibility, the participants are lying to cover it up. Gabbard testified before Congress that “no classified material” was shared. Hegseth insisted repeatedly that no “war plans” were discussed. But screenshots prove otherwise -- including explicit details about U.S. weapons systems, target movements, and precise attack times. A competent Secretary of Defense would know to never discuss such sensitive intelligence over a Signal chat.
The breach led some observers to re-examine their own online habits, such as Vice music supervisor Trash Jones who tweeted:
“I can relate to the US government because i am also leaving questionably big decisions up to the whims of a mentally ill group chat”
Or senior Business Insider correspondent and “Extremely Serious Person” Katie Notopoulos:
“Having read thru the full Houthi PC small group logs, I’ve come to the sad realization that I’m the JD Vance of my group chats: overly emotional, slightly unprofessional, confused by what everyone is saying bc I won’t scroll up, continually derails plans with late objections”
Two catastrophic failures, neither of which was questioned by any officials in the chat, led to this national security disaster: first, critical war planning should never have been conducted over an unsecured messaging platform, and second, Waltz’s careless failure to verify a participant meant sensitive military information was leaked in real time. This is not just incompetence -- it’s reckless endangerment of American lives.
The officials involved must be removed from their positions immediately. Tell the administration: Fire those who put U.S. fighter pilots at greater risk through their own unprofessionalism and gross negligence.
Thank you for insisting on competence at the highest levels of national security.
