By Gemma Ortwerth
We need to talk about the Signal chat.
If you haven’t read The Atlantic’s recent report, here’s what you need to know: a group of Trump-aligned insiders—including a Fox News host, a sitting congressman, a former intelligence officer, and current national security advisors—used an encrypted Signal group chat to casually discuss potential U.S. military strikes on the Houthis. The kicker? A journalist was in the thread the entire time.
No one has resigned. No one has issued a serious apology. The Trump campaign has offered no real explanation. Just silence—and a quietly escalating normalization of behavior that would be considered a full-blown national scandal under any other administration.
We’re not talking about informal policy debates among think tank fellows. We’re talking about high-level national security conversations—on encrypted messaging apps—with absolutely no regard for classification protocols, chain of command, or basic judgment.
And now, we’re left to figure out how this happened. There are two main possibilities—and both are terrifying.
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Option 1: A Whistleblower Leaked It Intentionally
One possibility is that someone inside the group chat realized how reckless and inappropriate these conversations were, and deliberately leaked it as a warning. If that’s the case, then we’re looking at someone who saw the line being crossed and sounded the alarm—a person who believed the public had a right to know just how unseriously this team is handling military planning.
If that’s true, we should be grateful. Because this kind of insight into how decisions are being shaped behind the scenes—decisions with life-and-death consequences—should alarm us all.
But then there’s Option 2, and it’s somehow even worse.
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Option 2: It Was an Accident
According to some sources, the journalist’s name in the thread—Julia Ioffe—may have been added accidentally. Maybe someone mistook her for another “Julia” in their contact list. Maybe they meant to send the message in another group chat altogether.
Either way, let’s be clear: that kind of mistake is not a minor slip—it is an egregious breach of judgment and protocol.
If you’re planning or discussing military action and you’re not even checking who’s in the room, then you are unfit to be anywhere near power. This isn’t a misfired text between friends. This is the casual exchange of national security strategy in an unsecured, poorly managed space with someone who had no business being there.
That’s not just incompetence. That’s a ticking time bomb.
And what’s worse? The Trump campaign’s response has been nothing. No one’s been fired. No one’s been rebuked. Not even a hint of concern. Because under Trumpism, what would be considered a catastrophic error anywhere else is just another Tuesday.
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This Isn’t a One-Off—It’s a Pattern
The Signal chat is just the latest episode in a long, exhausting list of security breaches, ethics violations, and authoritarian-style contempt for accountability:
• In 2017, Trump revealed classified intelligence to Russian officials—inside the Oval Office.
• In 2019, he attempted to extort political favors from Ukraine using military aid as leverage.
• In 2023, he was federally indicted for mishandling classified documents—then lying about it.
Every time, we’re told not to worry. Every time, we’re told it’s just media overreach or political theater. But what we’re actually seeing is a slow, deliberate unraveling of basic national governance norms—and this latest leak makes that clearer than ever.
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From Policy to Performance
That a Fox News host like Pete Hegseth is in the same chat as national security advisers is bad enough. Add in Rep. Mike Waltz—a sitting congressman and former Green Beret—and it becomes outright reckless. These are not fringe actors. These are the people shaping Trump’s potential return to power.
And they’re treating the prospect of military escalation like it’s a podcast pitch, not a life-or-death decision that will ripple through the world.
Trump hasn’t condemned the leak. He hasn’t called for resignations. Because this isn’t about integrity—it’s about loyalty. Not competence, but control.
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We Cannot Shrug This Off
This is how systems collapse—not through explosions, but through erosion. A thousand little moments where standards drop, guardrails fail, and we start to normalize the absurd.
A Signal chat shouldn’t be a war room.
Military strategy shouldn’t live next to memes and media talking points.
And national security should never hinge on whether someone misclicked a name in their contact list.
We should be furious.
We should be terrified.
And more than anything, we should refuse to let this go unanswered.
Because if this is how they act before regaining full control of the executive branch, imagine what happens when no one’s left to expose the thread.
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Gemma Ortwerth 
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