A scandal that defines the Trump administration
The scandal uncovered by the magazine's editor-in-chief The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, who was mistakenly included in a Signal chat The incident, in which top US defense and intelligence officials revealed their war plans against the Houthis in Yemen, represents a shocking mockery of the Trump administration, exposing multiple security lapses and revealing an unprofessional and highly dangerous approach. Even more troubling is that, 72 hours later, no resignations or dismissals have yet occurred.
In fact, those involved attacked the journalist and the media outlet and denied that confidential information had been shared in the chat, thereby discrediting the information. Recall that the group included Vice President JD Vance; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, whom Goldberg added to the group. In response to the accusations, Goldberg published content on Wednesday demonstrating that confidential information was indeed shared in an unsecured chat. Specifically, the targets of the US bombing raids on Yemen on March 15 were reported two hours in advance. If this information had fallen into the wrong hands, it would have jeopardized the entire operation and even the lives of the American pilots involved.
The scandal has astounded security experts around the world, both because of the irresponsibility of sharing this information in a chat room run by a private company like Signal (which could easily be hacked) and because of the tone of the conversations (with criticism of Europeans and the use of emoticons). A former senior Mossad official has even declared in the newspaper Haaretz The episode demonstrates that "Americans cannot be trusted" when it comes to security matters, and that it may have even affected the lives of Israeli agents. Furthermore, there is a suspicion that they used Signal and not the Pentagon's secure channels so that no trace of their conversations would remain.
In addition, the publication of The Atlantic proves that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard lied in the Senate when she said no classified or sensitive information had been shared. This Wednesday, she attributed it to a memory problem. Faced with widespread discredit, President Donald Trump has tried to downplay the matter, but the scandal is already his first major political crisis and is monopolizing the front pages of all media outlets.
In any case, this story defines like no other the true nature of the Trump administration. A mix of arrogance, irresponsibility, and incompetence that can lead to disasters and crises at any time and for any reason, be it a military operation in Yemen, a tariff war, or the illegal deportation of immigrants.