The ‘government by groupchat’ scandal should cost Mike Waltz his job

Blimey! Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg has written a fresh exposé that should result in the immediate resignation or firing of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. His story is called “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plan.” 

In calm and lucid prose, Goldberg explains that he was initially suspicious of his inclusion in a text chain about a potential American military attack on Yemen on the encrypted app Signal. Various Trump national security officials, ranging from Vice President J.D. Vance to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, appeared to be in the chat with him. “I had very strong doubts that this text group was real,” Goldberg observes, “because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans.”  The original invitation to join the groupchat called “Houthi PC small group” was sent to him on March 11 by none other than Waltz. Goldberg recounts some piquant details, including the reservations that Vance expressed about Trump’s grasp of the situation in the Middle East. Vance’s principal apprehension appears to have been that attacking the Houthis would benefit Europeans more than Americans. According to Vance, “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.” 

Much to-ing and fro-ing ensues over the next several days, as members of Trump’s team looked to show that they’re tough on Europe and will seek to extract some kind of remuneration from it for the operation – though why Europe, which was not involved with the attack, would compensate America for it is never stated. It’s also notable that not one of the principals, as the members of the “Houthi PC small group” are known, queried whether the attack would actually work. The Saudis, after all, bombed Yemen for several years without obtaining any demonstrable results beyond killing tens of thousands and creating fresh piles of rubble in the desert. The Houthi missile and drone attacks have continued unabated. 

Nevertheless, the Trump administration went to war – and texted Goldberg detailed plans several hours before the bombs began dropping. Waltz is directly culpable for this security breach, but the White House is trying to pretend that the story is a nothingburger. Goldberg, you may recall, also reported in 2020 that Donald Trump, when visiting Paris in 2018, refused to visit a cemetery because the dead soldiers were “suckers” and “losers.” Today’s scoop is far less contested: Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told Goldberg that the “thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials.” National security lawyers that Goldberg talked to suggest a different verdict. They believe that Waltz may have violated the Espionage Act governing top secret national-security information.

Now Waltz is supposed to head to Greenland this weekend with Second Lady Usha Vance. Maybe the trip is simply intended to try and intimidate the Danes. But if Trump truly is planning to invade and occupy the world’s largest island, he better not tell his National Security Advisor beforehand or risk Waltzing to disaster.