Alina Habba strolled up to the sticks outside of the White House on Wednesday with the swagger of a pirate and the credibility of a felon on the run. In other words, her usual M.O. If we’re keeping track, Habba is currently serving as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey — as well as a counselor to the president in the second Trump administration. She’s Donald Trump’s former personal legal spokesperson and also a former senior advisor to MAGA, Inc., Trump’s super PAC. She changes her title, but never her job: fealty to Trump.
She took a few questions about the ongoing Signal scandal that found high-level members of the new Trump administration acting like they were the Master Chief in a Halo cosplay bro’ chat room. The funny part? The government bros also invited the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeff Goldberg, into the text chain. Soon we’re reading the type of news that not only survives the daily news cycle, but shows continued life because of self-inflicted wounds by the administration. “I would love if the press, for once, would focus on the actual facts and actions of the administration. This is just – this is frankly just noise,” Habba bemoaned.
The only noise being generated are the answers from the White House: an endless parade of equivocations, lies, innuendo, anger, humor, drama and pathos worthy of a Broadway musical. Actually the press, for once, is focused on the facts and actions of the administration. It’s just the administration desperately wants our attention anywhere else because of “Signalgate”
The administration’s version of the story is so convoluted as to be ridiculous.
Furthering Trump’s woes, The Atlantic on Wednesday published a follow-up story that builds upon the first. The Atlantic published a transcript of text messages showing that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth detailed U.S. military attack plans in Yemen – and on a Signal text chain. “Secrets? What Secrets?” had been the standard reply from the administration prior to the Atlantic’s recent revelation. The publication of those facts on Wednesday calls out Trump’s lies, but more importantly for MAGA purists, their military “Brain Trust” consists of tattooed, well-coiffed, wanna-be sixth-grade bullies. Trump and his team will predictably deny, deflect, deny, denounce and may soon detain journalists for reporting about the crap the Trump administration eagerly spreads.
You have to wonder if Trump would like to jail those at the Atlantic who published a text from the VP which said; “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
I wonder if anyone figured out the international dynamics on that statement? Can’t be good.
Shortly before 6 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Trump emerged in the Oval Office after another day of embarrassment due to his laughable defense department team. He said Signalgate is just the latest witch hunt, while also claiming “there might be something defective with Signal.” Just what you want to hear about a civilian app used by the top brass in the Trump regime.
The administration’s version of the story is so convoluted as to be ridiculous. At every entertainment-related business in Hollywood, there are eager, young and ultimately more talented writers who could concoct a more cogent narrative than the White House staff has produced. Maybe Trump should buy a few of them - though it’s doubtful he’d pay them.
The truth is, there absolutely is no script. This administration acts like they’re sightseers at Disneyland. They love pulling levers and causing stuff to crash, while at the same time they’re in awe of doing so. That’s it. No daily script. Just the Project 2025 bible to cover the wider themes - and those are malleable. Corruption for its own sake.
The details do matter, however. The president is certainly “allowed” to use Signal. Not really an issue. It was how Signal was used. Both erasing the data at a future point while allowing the text to be captured for at least a week is just stupid, as well as potentially illegal.
While Signal is encrypted from end to end, all you have to do is take screenshots of the conversations to bypass the encryption protocols. Mind you, Signal has been used for some limited conversations in the military, but it is not cleared for receiving or transmitting classified data. To do that, you need to be in a SCIF (sensitive compartmentalized Information facility).
By using unapproved devices to communicate secret information, you find yourself in possible violation of 18 U.S. Code 798 – disclosure of classified information. Yes. A felony. This is part of the Espionage Act. It is the “knowing and willful disclosure of classified information,” including communication, publication, or use in a way prejudicial to the U.S. or beneficial to a foreign government. It is punishable by fine and/or imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Now hold that thought.
While Trump finds himself enmeshed in an electronic data squabble, so do a wide variety of incoming immigrants, green card holders and other foreigners. In that case, foreign travelers find themselves at the mercy of the Border Patrol, whose agents have apparently become more adventurous in taking casual and extended looks at your private cell phone data upon entry to the U.S. Time-consuming searches could ensue.
Thanks to Elon Trump or Donald Musk (does it matter which?) DOGE budget cuts ensure that few people will actually have to go through these searches, but the threat remains a viable one and American citizens are becoming increasingly concerned that their private data might be inspected upon return from a foreign trip. Beyond this place, there be dragons.
In both cases, the inability to understand the reach of advanced electronics has led to dire consequences. The president’s people are pretending like they’re playing video games — with real lives in the balance. They potentially face felony charges.
In the other case, there are certain to be innocent human beings detained unnecessarily. Few terrorists would likely be caught by searching cell phones, but lots of private data could be taken without need, only by desire. Meanwhile, people who texted their relatives “Can you believe this idiot?” are being detained and/or denied entry. Just ask your average French scientist.
Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth, when confronted by a reporter about Signalgate, claimed Goldberg was a no-good, low-down down mean old snake who’d do anything for fame. Hegseth’s rant apparently got mixed reviews at the White House.
That could mean everything — or nothing.
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Hegseth should resign. It would be the honorable thing to do (if he has any honor).
Trump may fire him. It’s looking increasingly likely that the longer Trump waits to come up with a viable scapegoat the more he risks getting some of the mess on his own clothes. Trump has a healthy survival instinct, or he used to before he joined the world of the “aging and fading quickly,” of which former President Biden may well be the president — if he’d only remember.
Then again, it would also be entirely in Trump’s wheelhouse to do absolutely nothing about this problem and see how it plays out. While that could be a horrible mistake, remember this is Trump. He’s made plenty of horrible mistakes. They are actually fodder for late-night talk shows and comedy routines.
The conspiracy theorists also find this to be fertile ground. Tune in for the alien angle, or the chemtrail pitch after the weather.
Meanwhile, consider The Atlantic. No one could have prepared for the story they found dropped in their lap, but they — so far — have handled it very well. The actions of Goldberg and his staff are certainly worthy of study in journalism classrooms. They stuck with the basics and so far their vetting of the facts seems overwhelmingly and demonstrably accurate. Verify, assess, relay the facts and do so succinctly. The reporting had immediate consequences. Toss a match on a charcoal grill doused in gasoline. You’ll understand.
The Atlantic’s fact gathering and vetting have thus enabled millions to laugh and cry when The Presidential Pep Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, insists that no operational data was shared. When some suggested National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was “purposely” behind the release of information, we all could howl. When some of Trump’s team tried to shift blame to Joe Biden, we all could just shake and scratch our heads.
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Biden is Trump’s catchall. When you've got nothing else, blame that guy. It’s probably scrawled into the desks of certain Trump staffers. Bad weather? Biden’s fault. Tux didn’t come home from the cleaners? Get a flat tire? Run out of gas? Your trailer got blown away in the windstorm? It’s Biden’s fault.
Hunter Thompson’s quote regarding a shallow money pit down a long plastic hallway where pimps run free and good men die like dogs, certainly describes Trump’s politics, though what Thompson said in “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” surely describes Trump’s closest advisers more accurately; “In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”
Stupidity runs rampant in the Trump regime. But Hegseth and maybe Waltz are more likely than anyone to face the music for the cacophony they caused — if anyone does. But that’s America.
George Carlin told us that when you are born in America, you get a front row seat to the freak show and Thompson told us you bought the ticket and so you should enjoy the ride. But you are free to get off of carnival rides and walk out of freak shows. Today, the average American isn’t free to leave. Somehow we’ve got to make it work.
The Signalgate debacle is just another reminder that Trump can’t get it done. But, there have been so many reminders before. What makes this one different — if anything?
Trump himself wasn’t primarily involved in the Signalgate scandal. That could make all the difference. Trump can rant and scream “victim” and say how the Deep State did this — and call Hegseth a patriotic victim even as he fires him. Again, this is just one of the many possibilities that Trump and his team will confront. Did anyone check to see what Putin favors? He might just have the deciding vote in this.
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