So far nobody’s going to prison, but that line might not hold. Here’s all the fallout from the first national security breach ever to involve the “prayer hands” emoji – and why Trump got mad about a painting
OH it has been a wild night in Washington.
In probably the most consequential insane breach of protocol since Donald Trump came to power – and the first ever national security breach to include the “prayer hands” emoji – half of the cabinet leaked, apparently by accident, sensitive military attack details to the Atlantic.
So far nobody’s going to prison, but don’t count on that line holding.
Meanwhile, Trump called a female journalist a maggot and got upset about a painting. Of him. Obviously.
Here’s the wildest things that happened on maybe the wildest day since Trump took office.
1. Discussed classified military operations in the group chat, accidentally invited the worst person imaginable
This didn’t happen last night but it broke last night, and they confirmed it last night, so it totally counts. Don’t email me.
Donald Trump’s most senior team, including several cabinet members including the Defence Secretary, the national security advisor, an active spy, vice president JD Vance and Washington’s premier Renfield tribute act, Stephen Miller, had a big long chat about classified plans to bomb Yemen in a group chat on Signal – which is a bit like Whatsapp for nerds.
Such high level secret conversations normally take place in person, or if not in person using a SCIF – a secure communications clean room set up by intelligence officers to ensure they cant be bugged or hacked.
Now, Signal will tell you they’re a privacy focused messaging platform. But “privacy focused” and “secure comms” are different things.
Even a private messaging service could be leaked if one of the phones on the chat was compromised. Or, for example, if one of the most prominent journalists in America, say Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic, were accidentally added to the chat. And that’s exactly what happened.
He got a friend request from an account claiming to be Michael Waltz, the National Security Adviser.
(Fun fact, Waltz is married to Julia Nesheiwat Waltz, a former Homeland Security advisor. Julia has two sisters, one is Janette Nesheiwat, Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, the other is Jaclyn Stapp, a model and the estranged wife of the lead singer from Creed, Scott Stapp.)
And then boom, Goldberg has joined the chat.
Defence Secretary and former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, proceeded to outline in personnel-endangering detail, including “information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
There were also emojis.
Trump, so far, has denied all knowledge of the chat. Instead, inevitably, he had a pop at the Atlantic.
I don’t know anything about it, I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic,” he said.
“To me it’s a magazine that’s going out of business … but I know nothing about it.”
The Atlantic is not going out of business. And after this, it’s probably going to be alright for a while.
Trump’s blaze dismissal of the blatant breach of national security calls to mind his casual acceptance of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. He was totally cool about that, right?
Right?
2. Still, at least Fox News and senior Republicans are taking it well
Fox host Jesse Watters was having a totally normal one last night, dismissing a massive leak of the most sensitive classified defence information as “sending a text to the wrong person.”
We’ve all done it, amirite, guys? Guys?
But surely senior congressmen – even Republicans – will be pushing for an investigation into how this happened, right?
NOPE.
3. Trump called a journalist a “maggot”, because that’s what world leaders do now
Don’t you miss the days when the hard working journalists trying to eke a bit of factual reality out of a Trump presidency were just “enemies of the people?”
Trump has a new name for a reporter who was previously, famously, his favourite.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times has become “Maggot Hagerman”. Imaginative and definitely not gross.
In a post on Sunday night, he wrote: “The Failing New York Times insists on using Liddle’ Peter Baker, a really bad writer and Obama biographer and sycophant, to write many of the long and boring Fake News hit pieces against me.
“The only two people with less talent than Peter are his “wife,” the lovely Susan Glasser, and, of course, Maggot Hagerman, who may be the least talented writer in the entire stable of New York Times’ MEDIOCRITY!
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Times said: “Presidents from both parties have found reason to be unhappy with honest, independent journalism. Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and their colleagues have an unrivalled record of covering this and prior administrations fully and fairly. Intimidation tactics against Times reporters or their family members have never caused us to back down from our mission of holding powerful people to account, regardless of
which party is in office.”
Some people reacted quite positively to the Times publicly backing their reporters. Others, however accused them of “bothsidesing”.
4. He says people in Greenland are ASKING to join the United States
“We are dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to being properly protected and properly taken care of,” he said in answer to a question about JD Vance’s wife randomly turning up in Greenland without telling anyone, and for no apparent reason.
“They’re calling us, we’re not calling them.”
He provided no evidence for this suggestion.
5. The National Intelligence Director claimed there wasn’t any classified information in the group chat – but won’t share it
At a fortuitously timed committee appearance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI director Kash Patel did there best [shrug, Scooby-Doo-style ri ron’t row] to any and all questions about (yes, we’re back on this) the massive breach and leak of high level national security secrets to the media.
Patel, who wasn’t in the group chat, said he hadn’t “that I can recall” ever been in a group chat where sensitive information was discussed.
And Gabbard took Pete Hesgeth’s earlier line that “no classified information” was discussed in the chat, which is wildly untrue, and ran with it.
Asked by Democrat Mark Warner if anyone not on the call suggested “hey, we should be doing this in a SCIF”, she said: “There was no classified material that was shared on the group chat.”
Warner, not unreasonably, responded: “If it’s not classified, share it with the committee…”
Reader, she did not.
6. Wait, did he mean to add this guy?
Yeah, I know, we’re dwelling on the Signal thing, but stay with me.
How exactly did Jeffrey Goldberg – whose name is listed as “JG” on Signal – get added to the group chat?
Could it be that whoever added him thought they were adding Jamieson Greer, Trump’s top trade chief, who has been heavily involved with issues surrounding the Suez Canal?
7. Oh, and Trump got FURIOUS about a painting of him
A painting of Donald Trump by British artist Sarah Boardman is to be taken down from Colorado’s state capital because Trump doesn’t like it.
It’s not entirely flattering, and makes him look like an ageing Tory special advisor. Honestly, we’re not surprised he hates it.
But he REALLY hates it.
He seems particularly incensed that the same artist painted Barack Obama once, and made him look “wonderful.”
But he claimed “the one on me is truly the worst” and has been “purposefully distorted.”
He added: “In any event, I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one.”
Hours later, the Colorado state Capitol removed the painting, which has been hanging since 2019.
