In an act of astonishing, and possibly illegal, carelessness, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inexplicably invited to join an open-source encrypted conversation of a principals group of senior national security officials on Signal. The meeting included Vice-President J.D. Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, national security advisor Michael Waltz, secretary of state Marco Rubio, director of national security Tulsi Gabbard, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, CIA director John Ratcliffe, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and Goldberg. The topic was coordinating the upcoming U.S. attack on the Houthi.
President Trump has defended his team, saying that the information discussed in the Signal chat was not classified. Hegseth has insisted that no war plans were discussed. Neither claim is true. Goldberg says the conversation included “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing” as well as “information that might be interpreted as related to actual and current intelligence operations.” Goldberg did not report these parts of the conversation because, he says, if read by an American adversary, they “could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel.”
The Atlantic subsequently published Hegseth’s posts, making it clear that he revealed real-time details and sequencing of launch times of F-18’s and drones and when strikes would start at least half an hour before U.S. warplanes launched and two hours before strikes began. He also revealed that there would be “[m]ore strikes ongoing for hours tonight.”
Trump has called Goldberg’s inclusion in the conversation a “glitch” that was “not… serious” and that had “no impact at all.” But though Trump says it was a glitch and that it contained no classified information, and though several officials stated, sometimes under oath in front of committees, that no classified information was shared, does not mean that it contained no information that was embarrassing. It did. And four of those embarrassments have not yet received enough attention.
This “glitch” is not the first of its kind. General David Petraeus admitted to giving his biographer and mistress his “highly classified” “black books.” And secretary of state Hillary Clinton used a private email server while carrying out official business. Hypocritically, in hindsight, Hegseth at the time said she should “be fired on the spot for this type of conduct and criminally prosecuted for being so reckless with this kind of information.” Rubio, who holds her position now, said “nobody is above the law, not even Hillary Clinton” and that she should “be held accountable.”
The current “glitch” includes an embarrassing revelation of the U.S. evaluation of Europe’s military capabilities. Mike Waltz says that “it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes.” Agreeing with Waltz’ assessment of the inability of Europe’s navies to take care of themselves, Hegseth says, “Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.” Revealing that the combined force of Europe cannot dislodge the Houthi from shipping lanes is an embarrassing revelation, especially at a time when Europe is offering security to Ukraine.
The leaked conversation is also interesting for its cynical frankness of the way operations have to be framed for consumption by the American public. Pointing out that only “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez,” while “40 percent of European trade does,” Vance says that “[t]here is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary.” With American forces being committed to the operation, the risk of widening the war in the Middle East and the risk of Yemeni civilian deaths and U.S. military deaths, Hegseth agrees that Vance’s “considerations” are “important.” He says he fears that the “messaging is going to be tough no matter what” since “nobody knows who the Houthis are.” He says, perhaps shockingly, that this is “not about the Houthis.” It is about “Restoring Freedom of Navigation” and “Reestablishing deterrence, which Biden cratered.” The messaging, then, “need[s] to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded,” meaning that the Houthi are funded by Iran.
The next two embarrassing revelations are, perhaps, the most important. Both belong to Vance. In almost every public statement by a member of the Trump administration, credit for everything is attributed back to Trump. “Every solution,” Steve Wikoff said in a recent interview, “comes as a result of President Trump. I don’t get paid to say that. I say it because it is the absolute truth.”
But in this, they thought, private conversation, Vance shares his doubts with the team about Trump’s awareness of subtleties and inconsistencies: “I think we’re making a mistake,” Vance says. In the context of a broader policy of insisting Europe pay for its own defense, including, importantly right now, in Ukraine, Vance tells the other members of the team, “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.” He also points out that war on the Houthi brings the “further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.” This may be the first public glimpse of concern over whether Trump has a comprehensive grasp of the overall, integrated foreign policy picture.
The public embarrassment that seems to have drawn the most media attention is the revelation of the administration’s disdain for Europe. “[I]f you think we should do it let’s go,” Vance tells Hegseth. “I just hate bailing Europe out again.” Hegseth then writes back, “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Others in the conversation insist that Europe needs to pay the U.S. back. “Per the president’s request,” Waltz says, “we are working with DOD and State to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans.” Miller then insists that “we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
The mainstream media has covered this leaked loathing of Europe and its free-loading on America. As The New York Times proclaims in its headline, “Now Europe Knows What Trump’s Team Calls It Behind Its Back: ‘Pathetic’.” The article begins, “Trump administration officials haven’t kept their disdain for Europe quiet. But the contempt seems to be even louder behind closed doors.” Axios’ headline declares that “Vance’s anti-Europe obsession runs deep in texting debacle.” For its headline, The Guardian goes with “Stunning Signal leak reveals depths of Trump administration’s loathing of Europe” while CNN’s headline says we “learned” of the “Loathing for Europe.”
Though all of these headlines are true, none of it is new. Though loathing and disregard for Europe may becoming more transactional and consequential under the Republican administration, it was not invented by them. The mainstream media is guilty either of short memories or of hypocrisy when they treat it as a new innovation. They might remember that the Obama-Biden administration had a much more embarrassing and consequential leak that revealed American disdain for Europe when assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland was heard on an intercepted phone call saying “fuck the EU” while plotting the 2014 coup in Ukraine.
The leaked Signal conversation suggests previously unknown doubts about Trump, cynical frankness about the need to frame events to sell them to the American public and disdain for the EU. It is incompetent and embarrassing. But it is not entirely new.
Ted Snider is a regular columnist on U.S. foreign policy and history at Antiwar.com and The Libertarian Institute. He is also a frequent contributor to Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative as well as other outlets. To support his work or for media or virtual presentation requests, contact him at tedsnider@bell.net.
