Tag Archives: Michael Waltz

Washington Post: Trump defends national security adviser Waltz in Signal group chat blunder

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Later, during a White House meeting with U.S. ambassadors, Trump said Waltz had been unfairly attacked and suggested that the problem was an issue with technology, not a lapse in judgment from a key deputy. “I don’t think he should apologize. I think he’s doing his best,” Trump said. “It’s equipment and technology that’s not perfect. And, probably he won’t be using it again. At least not in the very near future.”

Nonsense!

Our government — especially our military — has secure communications facilities and procedures. Trump’s wannabes are just too stupid / too ignorant / to lazy to use them.

Trump defends national security adviser Waltz in Signal group chat blunder

Washington Post: Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation

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The second Trump administration has clearly made a decision to move fast and break things. Largely gone are the establishment Republican figures and steady hands that sometimes resisted President Donald Trump during his first term. In their place are a bunch of people with less subject-matter and governmental experience but with the zeal of MAGA true believers, eager to implement Trump’s complete governmental overhaul and to bust through the traditional guardrails in the process.

The result is a very — and increasingly — sloppy first two months, by any objective measure.

The big headline Monday was that top Trump national security officials shared sensitive military plans for impending strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels with the editor in chief of the Atlantic. The White House confirmed to The Washington Post that the editor was inadvertently included in the messages.

The editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the string of messages on Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging service. The group included the names of prominent administration figures, such as national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, all strategizing about the impending attacks.

The messages were sent before the strikes began last weekend and previewed almost precisely when they ultimately took place.

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Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation

UK Daily Mail: Whose side ARE they on? Fury at US plot to ‘extort’ Europe over key global shipping route as extraordinary security bungle reveals Team Trump branding closest allies ‘pathetic freeloaders’

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MPs voiced fury today after an extraordinary security bungle revealed some of Donald Trump’s most senior team condemning Europe as ‘pathetic freeloaders’.

A bombshell exchange on the Signal messaging app – accidentally shared with a journalist – showed an elite group including JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security advisor Mike Waltz voicing ‘loathing’ for their long-term allies.

They also discuss how to get money out of European countries in return for US military strikes intended to stop Houthi rebels disrupting critical shipping routes in the Red Sea.

But UK politicians said glimpse behind the scenes showed America was ‘unreliable’ and accused them of plotting ‘extortion’. One normally US-friendly MP described the situation as a ‘nightmare’ and warned Europe must ‘take it seriously and not think it’s just casual chat’. 

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Fury as Team Trump voice ‘loathing’ for ‘pathetic freeloaders’ Europe
A bombshell exchange on the Signal messaging app – accidentally shared with a journalist – showed an elite group voicing ‘loathing’ for their long-term allies.

Whose side ARE they on? Fury at US plot to ‘extort’ Europe over key global shipping route as extraordinary security bungle reveals Team Trump branding closest allies ‘pathetic freeloaders’ | Daily Mail Online

New York Times: I Don’t Know How Pete Hegseth Can Look Service Members In the Eyes

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I don’t know how Pete Hegseth can look at service members in the eyes. He’s just blown his credibility as a military leader.

On Monday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published one of the most extraordinary stories I’ve ever read. Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, apparently inadvertently invited Goldberg to join a Signal group chat (Signal is an encrypted messaging app) that seemed to include several senior Trump officials, including Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.

A National Security Council spokesman told The Atlantic that the chat “appears to be authentic.”

No one apparently noticed Goldberg’s presence, and he had a front-row seat as they debated Trump’s decision to attack the Houthi rebels, an Iran-backed militia that had been firing on civilian shipping in the Red Sea.

Then, at 11:44 a.m. on March 15, the account labeled “Pete Hegseth” sent a message that contained “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying and attack sequencing.”

This would be a stunning breach of security. I’m a former Army JAG officer (an Army lawyer). I’ve helped investigate numerous alleged spillages of classified information, and I’ve never even heard of anything this egregious — a secretary of defense intentionally using a civilian messaging app to share sensitive war plans, without even apparently noticing a journalist was in the chat.

Opinion | I Don’t Know How Pete Hegseth Can Look Service Members In the Eyes – The New York Times