The Trump administration accidentally added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a Signal group chat where they were planning a war. That’s not satire. That’s not exaggeration. That’s a direct line into the abyss-level stupidity of the people currently running the most powerful military on Earth.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a longtime national security journalist, was added by accident to what was supposed to be a high-level “Principals Committee” discussion about an imminent strike campaign on Houthi targets in Yemen. The chat included names like Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA chief John Ratcliffe, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard, and others. Goldberg sat there watching in disbelief as strike times, targets, and weapons were shared in real-time—right down to the minute the first bombs would drop. These weren’t hypotheticals. These were mission orders. And the U.S. government didn’t notice a journalist was in the chat.
It’s not just reckless. It’s not just dangerous. It’s the clearest example yet that these people are too stupid to govern.
The messages reveal not only a casual disregard for operational security, but a deep unseriousness about war itself. Hegseth opened one “TEAM UPDATE” with a cheery “Godspeed to our Warriors.” JD Vance offered a prayer emoji. Michael Waltz—Trump’s National Security Adviser and the group’s admin—posted fist bumps and fire emojis when a building collapsed and a target was confirmed dead. At one point, Hegseth reassures the group that “we are currently clean on OPSEC” while a reporter sits in the chat window.
It would be hilarious if it weren’t so deadly.
But beyond the incompetence, the thread exposed something uglier: the war wasn’t about the Houthis. It was about politics. The conversation repeatedly framed the strike as a way to “send a message” that “Biden failed” and that “Iran funded” the chaos. There was no urgency. Joe Kent explicitly said, “There is nothing time sensitive driving the timeline.” JD Vance admitted it was a bad idea, citing oil prices and public confusion, but still said, “I’m willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself.”
This wasn’t a deliberation. It was a groupthink meltdown, with real bombs on the other end.
And while we’re here, let’s remember: this is the same Trump political machine that spent years chanting “Lock her up” over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Clinton was dragged through congressional hearings, media trials, and the 2016 election itself over allegations of mishandling classified information. And yet here we are—watching the actual Trump cabinet coordinate airstrikes over Signal, an unclassified, commercial messaging app, with disappearing messages, no audit trail, and one random journalist copied in.
Forget secure servers. These people aren’t even using their work phones.
It’s not just hypocrisy. It’s performance art. Clinton was vilified for a theoretical risk. Trump’s team leaked an active war plan in a live thread and then congratulated each other with emojis.
The two stations of power in America have never been clearer: one for people who make enemies of the powerful, and another for the powerful who make enemies of competence.
Hegseth, Vance, Waltz, Ratcliffe—these aren’t just bad leaders. They’re dumb. And dumb is the most dangerous quality in a government that controls missiles, drones, and global policy. These men aren’t just insecure in their messaging. They are insecure in every sense—paranoid, unprepared, and desperate to look like men of strength while broadcasting their every move like amateurs in a strategy game.
The regime is too stupid to govern. And the world is watching it unravel in real time.
