Group Chat Shows Trump, Et Al. Can’t Be Trusted with Nation’s Security

By Michael Woyton

The fallout continues in what is being referred now as #WhiskeyLeaks, the unbelievably stupid revelation to an editor of a major news magazine of United States government plans to bomb another country.

It is beyond anyone’s imagination to say the group chat of administration higher-ups that happened on a commercial messaging app did not contain classified information when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic published text messages stating what times and where missiles will be launching and exploding in Yemen.

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And then to say “no war plans” were discussed when the text message states “THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP.” 

OK, maybe we didn’t declare war on Yemen, but we did intentionally drop explosives on some of their citizens.

Potato, potahto.

All this started Monday when Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, published a story describing how he was mistakenly included in a group chat with members of President Donald J. Felon’s administration while they were discussing plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen, NBC News reported.

Goldberg said he followed the chat for a while even though he was initially skeptical about whether it was real, but eventually came around to believe it was. 

Besides Goldberg, the group chat included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, State Secretary Marco Rubio, national security advisor Michael Waltz and others.

Almost immediately after the article was published, the administration began disparaging Goldberg and implying he somehow hacked his way into the group chat which was being held via Signal, a commercially available encrypted app.

On Tuesday, Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee and were grilled about the group chat news.

Unfortunately for our country’s security, Gabbard could not remember whether specific targets were mentioned — the group chat ended March 15, BTW, and she couldn’t remember the details back that far. Ratcliffe said his communications in the chat did not include classified information, but that sounds more as if he was trying to cover his own ass.

Hegseth told reporters that no one was texting war plans, and even the grifter-in-chief said there was no classified information in the chat.

With the publication of the plans outlining the bombings Wednesday, Goldberg basically called the administration’s bluff that there was no classified information in the chat.

“The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,” he wrote.

Goldberg makes the point that, had the information fallen into the wrong hands during the timeline explicitly stated in the chat, “American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face.”

Said another way, American soldiers could have been killed because of this administration.

FYI, Steve Witkoff, the administration’s top Middle East negotiator, was in Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin the same day he was added to the group chat. The same group chat that was likely taking place on unsecured devices. In Russia. Meeting with Putin.

Can this get any worse?

The adjudicated rapist in the Oval Office characterized the whole situation as “a minor transgression,” the New York Times reported, and also called Goldberg a “sleazebag.”

Waltz, who created the group chat, said on Fox News Tuesday that he takes full responsibility, but maintained later that he’s never met nor communicated with Goldberg.

People, this is how our government is being run now — not only by an unelected billionaire who is determined to loot the coffers of Social Security and other vital offices that provide services and stability to Americans and others around the world, but by people who shouldn’t be trusted to collect trash much less watch over our nation’s defenses.

This administration is dangerous.

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You gloss over someone’s personal history during confirmation hearings and you get these questions.

Gomez: Do you know whether Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information?Gabbard: I don’t have any knowledge of his personal habits.Ratcliffe: That’s an offensive line of questioning

Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-03-26T16:01:10.002Z

— — — — —

The director of national intelligence doesn’t remember what country she was in at the time.

Crow: You were also traveling during this discussion, correct?Gabbard: Yes.Crow: And where were you?Gabbard: I don't recall which country I was in at that time.Crow: You don't remember the country?

Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-03-26T15:23:04.549Z

— — — — —

The Russians know. These people travel with security personnel and are never far from a SCIF.

Meiselas: Steve Witkoff, was allegedly in Moscow while he was on this group chat. Do you believe the Russians now have all of that information and potentially more?Rice: Well, yes—the Russians have whatever Witkoff was doing or saying on his personal cell phone. The Russians undoubtedly have it.

Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-03-26T00:51:01.381Z

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-SPAN

Published by Michael Woyton

Michael Woyton is an award-winning journalist who covered municipalities and school districts for the Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal and local and regional news in the Hudson Valley for Patch Media.

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