The second Trump administration’s first major scandal continues to boil. “Signalgate” is rather simple, as Beltway scandals go. It’s about the use of Signal, the encrypted messaging app, by top Trump national security officials to discuss current military events. The controversy centers on officials who posted classified information. Inconveniently, Jeffrey Goldberg, a top liberal journalist and longtime Trump nemesis, was bizarrely invited into this close-hold chat.
The White House naturally denies any wrongdoing, but to those with experienced national security eyes, some of the information posted in “Houthi PC small group” certainly looks classified. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on March 15 posted detailed information about imminent U.S. military strikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen. National Security Council boss Mike Waltz subsequently shared intelligence assessments of the bombing’s immediate effect. In any normal Beltway universe, such information, shared in real-time, is unquestionably classified.
