I saw some comments online that the real issue wasn’t compromising national security on Signal, but the fact that Waltz had The Atlantic editor’s contact info on his phone in the first place.
The commenter thought Trump didn’t care about the security leak, which has been hand-waved away. It was the potential “collaboration with the enemy” that was unforgivable–the media being the enemy.
To me it’s all part of the same scandal. Trump may feel differently, but I’m sure Trump and I disagree on a great many things.
You’re right, I counted too generously. So 3.8 Scaramacchiatos is a loooong time. It gets weirder and funnier the more you think about it.
It’s more than 1 news cycle, which is more or less the attention span in the White House these days, and therefore the only attention span that exists in their minds
3.8 Scaramacchiatos. Not Great, Not Terrible.
Another followup-apparently Walz also looked at Signal during Cabinet meetings. I guess that’s better than cuddling up to Trump during that time.
How does Putin find the time to look over all the SIGINT they’re sending him?
Mike Waltz.
If Tim Walz was in Trump’s cabinet meetings, I’m sure we’d know about it.
I’m picturing a new political cartoon. Tim Walz sitting in one of Trump’s cabinet meetings, wondering “How did I get invited to this?”
Trump:
“Get out!!!”
“…Leave the hot dish though.”
What would be funnier, his name on the place card being “Tim Waltz” or “Mike Walz”?
Tangentially related, but equally bad:
Might be time to resurrect the OG secure communications method:
This post confused me, as i am a regular Signal user (since the first Trump presidency, maybe longer) and it’s still working fine.
So, apparently, they aren’t actually using Signal, but an Israeli-branded reskin of Signal?? I can’t imagine any problems with that.
I think this article sheds more light on the specifics:
Makes me wonder if Waltz was using TeleMessage to somehow comply with the Federal Records Act to preserve government records or not.
I thought the appeal of Signal was that it would delete the texts sent on it so there wouldn’t be a record of what the Trumpsters were up to. Maybe some of them want a record of the texts, but not an official one. Leverage for later use, maybe?
I don’t know that much about Waltz. Is he a “relatively normal” Republican in the administration or more of an incompetent MAGA ball-nuzzler like Hegseth or Lutnick? I don’t think he’s in the Stephen Miller category of an evil éminence grise.
It’s possible that Signal is blocked on the official phones (because you can delete history), but TeleMessage is allowed, because it preserves history? So, they use Signal inside TM.
Just guessing.