Trump’s secret war plan blunder: ‘Someone, frankly, should be fired’

Pete Hegseth speaks after being sworn in as Secretary of Defense by Vice President JD Vance in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

After today, Donald Trump should get jeered if he dares to mention Hillary Clinton’s emails ever again. The critique of her use of a private email server has been used by Trump to establish his ethical and moral superiority.

Now we can forget all that.

The Trump administration has been caught discussing real US war plans on an encrypted, but not top secret public platform, Signal.

But that’s not all. The top-level officials in the group chat included Trump’s unqualified cabinet hires, the former Fox anchor now Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the compromised former member of Congress now head of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

They were discussing plans to secretly bomb Houthi targets across Yemen.

Also included in the chat were Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie WIles, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Sr. White House Advisor Stephen Miller (the man who has devised the strategy behind most of the heinous, racist, anti-immigrant policy).

Two hours before the bombing began, the war plan was sent out to the group chat. But no one noticed it included someone special?

The president? No, he was not included.

But Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was in the group chat and got everything, war plans and all, delivered to him via text.

A media person in a top-secret meeting?

This is as crazy as it gets within the first 100 days of Trump.

It bears repeating. A group chat on a public chat platform with national security leaders about to strike the Houthis includes a top media editor.

Well, if a former weekend anchor of Fox can be secretary of defense…

Goldberg revealed the error today in a story in the Atlantic. But imagine what our allies are thinking? And then there is Beijing and Moscow where the laughter must be loud about America’s unqualified amateurs running a democracy.

And Trump? He was asked about the story two hours after it broke on Monday.

“I don’t know anything about it,” is what Trump said. He wasn’t in on the group chat and didn’t know about the meeting that took place on the 15th.

It is now nine days later and Trump was simply clueless.

“I know nothing about it,” Trump again told a group of reporters.

Apparently, the Trump administration’s push to cut for government efficiency includes briefing the president on little things like the questionable bombing of the Houthis. An act of war? That would require Congress and none of those guys were in on this either.

I know most people are concerned about the cost of things, like eggs and patis and such, but is this any way to run a country?

There’s just one word for this.

Reckless.

“The last thing you want when you’re talking about war plans is to have a serious leak like this that could undermine the war plans and jeopardize lives, so I hope the White House takes this seriously,” said Leon Panetta, the former defense secretary, and former director of the CIA.

He called for a full investigation.

“This is just a serious blunder that can violate the espionage laws, but more importantly can violate our national security,” Panetta told CNN.

Beyond an investigation, Panetta was adamant. “Somebody, frankly, needs to get fired,” he said.

Well, DOGE is firing a lot of the wrong people these days working for the government.

Who will take the fall for this blunder? The guy who put the list together? The people “in charge?” From Goldberg’s story it sounds like Hegseth, followed by Vance and Waltz.

The US is lucky a national media member, was on the chain. The encryption of Signal is not infallible, compared to what the US normally provides for top secret matters.

The carelessness here is simply astonishing.

But this is the way the US works now.

You have a man like Trump at the top, who simply requires loyalty and not competence. That’s how these kind of mistakes happen.

Letting an editor into the group chat fortunately led to the inadvertent investigative reporting of the Atlantic. Now we know the truth behind this real breach in security. And it should be shocking to any red-blooded American.

Just another example of how our country is paying a price after an election with real consequences.

Emil Guillermo is an award-winning journalist, news analyst and stage monologuist. He writes for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. He has written a weekly “Amok” column on Asian American issues since 1995. Find him on YouTube, patreon and substack.