Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
In case you missed this from the official White House website:
“Democrats and their media allies have seemingly forgotten that President Donald J. Trump and his National Security team successfully killed terrorists who have targeted US troops and disrupted one of the most consequential shipping routes in the world. This is a coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.” (Emphasis not added by The Hustings. The White House evidently thinks you might miss it without it being put in bold face.)
Regarding what is now being called “Signalgate” there is no coordinated effort to distract anyone from anything. Well, maybe there’s the Team Trump attempts to distract at how horrible this situation is.
Never mind the administration officials’ use of a free, open-source app that you can get for your Apple or Android phone, was used for a group chat said to be including:
- Michael Waltz, national security advisor
- Pete Hegseth, secretary of defense
- Marco Rubio, secretary of state
- John Ratcliffe, CIA director
- JD Vance, vice president
- Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence
- Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
- Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff
- Steve Witkoff, special envoy for the Middle East and Ukraine
Yes, we’re talking the Full Monty.
Oh, and of course, also in the group chat:
- Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic
Goldberg was a class act, hesitating to take the lid off this rancid mess.
But then Team Trump being Team Trump, what did they do?
Smear Goldberg.
Today, Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, called Goldberg an “anti-Trump hater” and that it is simply the “Signal hoax.”
That’s right: Providing information before the fact about an attack on “terrorists who have targeted U.S. troops” on an app is Goldberg’s fault.
Michael Waltz, who created the group for the chat and who included Goldberg, called the journalist “scum.”
Pete Hegseth typed in information prior to the attack not only about the equipment, but even the weather.
Yet he sluffs off any responsibility for doing something wrong.
The level of incompetence of these people is breathtaking.
And let’s not forget that US Attorney General Pam Bondi says that people who are vandalizing Teslas, Tesla chargers, or Tesla stores are committing acts of “domestic terrorism.”
Not only does this trivialize the charge of “terrorism,” but it is done for one reason only: Elon Musk.
Press Secretary Leavitt said on Fox News of Trump: “He will ensure that the harshest penalties are pursued for those who are engaging in this vicious violence.”
Do you think if someone took a crowbar to every windshield of vehicles parked in your local Ford dealer’s lot it would garner the attention of the president of the United States?
Clearly, being “mission critical” isn’t something that applies to Team Trump.
How is it they “keep Americans safe” by holding a group chat that provides specifics about an attack on real terrorists before the fact? Aren’t they putting the servicepeople who were flying the planes in danger by providing operational detail on the app?
Nobody is distracting anyone from this absolute cluster that occurred among most of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S. government.
Trump called Waltz “a very good man.”
Perhaps he is. Perhaps he brushes twice daily, flosses, and goes to church every Sunday.
But Waltz is evidently a man who is in well over his head. And Hegseth preens and postures even though this whole situation is, to borrow a military term, FUBAR.
Which may be qualifications for serving on Team Trump.
Just imagine if this happened on Biden’s watch.
Trump would have broken the “caps lock” function on his phone banging out screeds on Truth Social.
On January 27 Trump signed an Executive Order related to the US military that reads, in part:
“Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”
The “pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas.”
If all of the denials, obfuscations, coverups, and out-right lies being told about the Signal fiasco isn’t a political agenda that has consequences regarding our military excellence, then it is hard to know what is.
By the way, there is something called the “Federal Records Act,” which is codified in Title 44 of the United States Code. It is a law.
It is a law for the perseveration of federal records.
According to the National Archives, “Federal records have value by protecting the rights and interests of the public, holding officials accountable for their actions, and documenting our nation's history.”
“Holding officials accountable for their actions.”
One of the features of the Signal messaging app? “Disappearing messages.”
After a set time, all messages on the app can be automatically deleted.
Poof!
So do you think that group of individuals was using Signal rather than, say, WhatsApp because they think it sounds more serious?
Or because they’d like their messages to disappear?
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings. His columns also appear on our Substack.