Gyroscopic Investing

Yet more (but not unexpected) amateur hour from Trump and his nothing but the best team!

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ns/682151/

Politics

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

By Jeffrey Goldberg




After receiving the Waltz text related to the “Houthi PC small group,” I consulted a number of colleagues. We discussed the possibility that these texts were part of a disinformation campaign, initiated by either a foreign intelligence service or, more likely, a media-gadfly organization, the sort of group that attempts to place journalists in embarrassing positions, and sometimes succeeds. I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president.



At this point, a fascinating policy discussion commenced. The account labeled “JD Vance” responded at 8:16: “Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake.” (Vance was indeed in Michigan that day.) The Vance account goes on to state, “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.”
The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”


The account identified as “JD Vance” addressed a message at 8:45 to @Pete Hegseth: “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.” (The administration has argued that America’s European allies benefit economically from the U.S. Navy’s protection of international shipping lanes.)

The user identified as Hegseth responded three minutes later: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.”



After reading this chain, I recognized that this conversation possessed a high degree of verisimilitude. The texts, in their word choice and arguments, sounded as if they were written by the people who purportedly sent them, or by a particularly adept AI text generator. I was still concerned that this could be a disinformation operation, or a simulation of some sort. And I remained mystified that no one in the group seemed to have noticed my presence. But if it was a hoax, the quality of mimicry and the level of foreign-policy insight were impressive.



At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled “Pete Hegseth” posted in Signal a “TEAM UPDATE.” I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.



The Signal chat group, I concluded, was almost certainly real. Having come to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours before, I removed myself from the Signal group, understanding that this would trigger an automatic notification to the group’s creator, “Michael Waltz,” that I had left. No one in the chat had seemed to notice that I was there. And I received no subsequent questions about why I left—or, more to the point, who I was.

Earlier today, I emailed Waltz and sent him a message on his Signal account. I also wrote to Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard, and other officials. In an email, I outlined some of my questions: Is the “Houthi PC small group” a genuine Signal thread? Did they know that I was included in this group? Was I (on the off chance) included on purpose? If not, who did they think I was? Did anyone realize who I was when I was added, or when I removed myself from the group? Do senior Trump-administration officials use Signal regularly for sensitive discussions? Do the officials believe that the use of such a channel could endanger American personnel?
Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded two hours later, confirming the veracity of the Signal group. “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes wrote. “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”
William Martin, a spokesperson for Vance, said that despite the impression created by the texts, the vice president is fully aligned with the president. “The Vice President’s first priority is always making sure that the President’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations,” he said. “Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.”


I have never seen a breach quite like this. It is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal. But the app is used primarily for meeting planning and other logistical matters—not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action. And, of course, I’ve never heard of an instance in which a journalist has been invited to such a discussion.
Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of “national defense” information, according to several national-security lawyers interviewed by my colleague Shane Harris for this story. Harris asked them to consider a hypothetical scenario in which a senior U.S. official creates a Signal thread for the express purpose of sharing information with Cabinet officials about an active military operation. He did not show them the actual Signal messages or tell them specifically what had occurred.
All of these lawyers said that a U.S. official should not establish a Signal thread in the first place. Information about an active operation would presumably fit the law’s definition of “national defense” information. The Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information. The government has its own systems for that purpose. If officials want to discuss military activity, they should go into a specially designed space known as a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF—most Cabinet-level national-security officials have one installed in their home—or communicate only on approved government equipment, the lawyers said. Normally, cellphones are not permitted inside a SCIF, which suggests that as these officials were sharing information about an active military operation, they could have been moving around in public. Had they lost their phones, or had they been stolen, the potential risk to national security would have been severe.



Waltz and the other Cabinet-level officials were already potentially violating government policy and the law simply by texting one another about the operation. But when Waltz added a journalist—presumably by mistake—to his principals committee, he created new security and legal issues. Now the group was transmitting information to someone not authorized to receive it. That is the classic definition of a leak, even if it was unintentional, and even if the recipient of the leak did not actually believe it was a leak until Yemen came under American attack.
All along, members of the Signal group were aware of the need for secrecy and operations security. In his text detailing aspects of the forthcoming attack on Houthi targets, Hegseth wrote to the group—which, at the time, included me—“We are currently clean on OPSEC.”

When a reporter just asked Trump about this .. he said that he knew nothing about it ... which is even MORE scary at how out of touch he is with those he gives power to!

Got to admit this is interesting

I’m assuming that long post was intended to refer to Walz but Waltz was used. Could that be an indication it was written by AI?

dualstow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:06 pm Got to admit this is interesting

Interesting is not the word for it.

As far as I know this is unprecedented in our history!

As part of the Trump's constants spews about everyone he was critical of people not being fired.

Do you think he fires anyone over this?

Mountaineer wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:12 pm I’m assuming that long post was intended to refer to Walz but Waltz was used. Could that be an indication it was written by AI?

Read the article and then answer your own question.

Your reaction to this the same if it'd been Biden's team who had been the one involved?

yankees60 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:53 pm

Mountaineer wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:12 pm I’m assuming that long post was intended to refer to Walz but Waltz was used. Could that be an indication it was written by AI?

Read the article and then answer your own question.

Your reaction to this the same if it'd been Biden's team who had been the one involved?

My signature line is the answer to your question. The linked interview that follows is my longer answer, and my opinion. I almost always only give my energy to things I can control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dygS69Z09Go

yankees60 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:52 pm

dualstow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:06 pm Got to admit this is interesting

Interesting is not the word for it.

As far as I know this is unprecedented in our history!

As part of the Trump's constants spews about everyone he was critical of people not being fired.

Do you think he fires anyone over this?

Interesting.

P.S. I see it made BBC news tonight, since it’s confirmed.

Mountaineer wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 4:28 pm

yankees60 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:53 pm

Mountaineer wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:12 pm I’m assuming that long post was intended to refer to Walz but Waltz was used. Could that be an indication it was written by AI?

Read the article and then answer your own question.

Your reaction to this the same if it'd been Biden's team who had been the one involved?

My signature line is the answer to your question. The linked interview that follows is my longer answer, and my opinion. I almost always only give my energy to things I can control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dygS69Z09Go

If I listen to the video I will let you know my thoughts regarding it.

dualstow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 6:02 pm

yankees60 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:52 pm

dualstow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:06 pm Got to admit this is interesting

Interesting is not the word for it.

As far as I know this is unprecedented in our history!

As part of the Trump's constants spews about everyone he was critical of people not being fired.

Do you think he fires anyone over this?

Interesting.

P.S. I see it made BBC news tonight, since it’s confirmed.

"Source: Shock inside White House Over Leaked Military Plans"

Also, the Atlantic person contacted the White House at 9 AM and in early afternoon Trump answered a reporter's questions by saying, "I am not aware of that. I know nothing about that."

????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://babylonbee.com/news/4d-chess-ge ... r-see-them


4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans To 'The Atlantic' Where No One Will Ever See Them

·
Mar 24, 2025 · BabylonBee.com
Jim Watson, Shutterstock.com


WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stunning show of brilliant military strategy, President Trump has leaked his top-secret Yemen airstrike plans to The Atlantic so that no one will ever see them or read them.

The battle plan, which was just a group chat text message that said: "Yeah, let's drop bombs on them, lol" was sent to a journalist with The Atlantic to be published in an article that no one saw, in a publication no one reads.

"My administration is expert in top-secret. Frankly, no one does top-secret better than we do," said Trump. "We know that The Atlantic, which used to be great but now is so terrible, has zero readers, and no one will see my war plans."

"It's the most secure place to hide these plans in the world, maybe in history."

The magazine's editor assured the nation there was nothing to worry about. "Trump's secret is safe with us," he said, "just like all our articles, news, and advertisements."

At publishing time, journalists had confirmed that Trump's staff had responded to the texted war plans with 3 fire emojis and an eggplant emoji.

Perfect

yankees60 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 8:42 pm

dualstow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 6:02 pm

yankees60 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:52 pm

dualstow wrote: ↑Mon Mar 24, 2025 3:06 pm Got to admit this is interesting

Interesting is not the word for it.

As far as I know this is unprecedented in our history!

As part of the Trump's constants spews about everyone he was critical of people not being fired.

Do you think he fires anyone over this?

Interesting.

P.S. I see it made BBC news tonight, since it’s confirmed.

"Source: Shock inside White House Over Leaked Military Plans"

Also, the Atlantic person contacted the White House at 9 AM and in early afternoon Trump answered a reporter's questions by saying, "I am not aware of that. I know nothing about that."

????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trump better become aware of it and fast. This should cost Hegseth his job immediately - and good riddance. Possibly others, too. The question now: is this merely gross incompetence or also criminal? Trump needs to start taking national defense & intelligence seriously and return competent people to those roles.

And then leave true defense/intelligence experts to their jobs while he focuses on economics. Trump may have an okay economic team if they can just get the correct tariffs all squared away so we start making the important stuff at home again. This is also a national security matter, but not one that the military can solve.

They got rid of DEI so that "only the best, most qualified will be hired and promoted, not a {fill in the blank}".

Well, they sure filled in the Defense Secretary job with a blank didn't they? Actually with a blankety-blank.

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am Trump may have an okay economic team if they can just get the correct tariffs all squared away so we start making the important stuff at home again.

It's an okay economic team if you like engendering an economic slowdown.

(oh wait, Dear Leader forbids that word)

It's an okay economic team if you like en******ing an economic slowdown.

ochotona wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 6:13 am

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am Trump may have an okay economic team if they can just get the correct tariffs all squared away so we start making the important stuff at home again.

It's an okay economic team if you like engendering an economic slowdown.

(oh wait, Dear Leader forbids that word)

It's an okay economic team if you like en******ing an economic slowdown.

The VP accusing Europe (and others) of being free-loaders - after decades of the US having free-loaded in having the US Dollar accepted as the primary reserve/trade currency (exporting inflation) ... is, for many, a welcome ending to that. Americans standard of living aided by such freeloading are destined to decline. US tariffs will be reciprocated, and more, foreign holding and trading using the Dollar swapped out for gold and suchlike, and the real free-loaders will be reveled as the tide recedes. The US will be fine however, has enough domestic resources/capabilities to self-sustain a isolated, untrusted, self serving 4% of the global population entity. Self misconceptions of grandeur, but where if viewed geographically as a island off the African mainland



has had way more than its fair share of free-loading.

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am
Trump better become aware of it and fast. This should cost Hegseth his job immediately - and good riddance. Possibly others, too. The question now: is this merely gross incompetence or also criminal? Trump needs to start taking national defense & intelligence seriously and return competent people to those roles.

And then leave true defense/intelligence experts to their jobs while he focuses on economics. Trump may have an okay economic team if they can just get the correct tariffs all squared away so we start making the important stuff at home again. This is also a national security matter, but not one that the military can solve.

"Trump needs to start taking national defense & intelligence seriously and return competent people to those roles."

Yes, he should. But why should there be any expectation that he will?

He's made it completely clear to all of his that competency is not high on his list of qualifications for who he hires. Extreme loyalty to him outranks all the rest put together.

That does not serve either him or us well.

ochotona wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 6:11 am They got rid of DEI so that "only the best, most qualified will be hired and promoted, not a {fill in the blank}".

Well, they sure filled in the Defense Secretary job with a blank didn't they? Actually with a blankety-blank.

They've replaced traditional DEI with their own!

seajay wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 7:23 am

ochotona wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 6:13 am

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am Trump may have an okay economic team if they can just get the correct tariffs all squared away so we start making the important stuff at home again.

It's an okay economic team if you like engendering an economic slowdown.

(oh wait, Dear Leader forbids that word)

It's an okay economic team if you like en******ing an economic slowdown.

The VP accusing Europe (and others) of being free-loaders - after decades of the US having free-loaded in having the US Dollar accepted as the primary reserve/trade currency (exporting inflation) ... is, for many, a welcome ending to that. Americans standard of living aided by such freeloading are destined to decline. US tariffs will be reciprocated, and more, foreign holding and trading using the Dollar swapped out for gold and suchlike, and the real free-loaders will be reveled as the tide recedes. The US will be fine however, has enough domestic resources/capabilities to self-sustain a isolated, untrusted, self serving 4% of the global population entity. Self misconceptions of grandeur, but where if viewed geographically as a island off the African mainland



has had way more than its fair share of free-loading.

And, we as a country will have no one to blame except for ourselves!

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am This should cost Hegseth his job immediately - and good riddance.

Was it Hegseth? I thought it was Michael Waltz who blew it.
I’ve forgotten already.

yankees60 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 8:25 am

seajay wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 7:23 am

ochotona wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 6:13 am

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am Trump may have an okay economic team if they can just get the correct tariffs all squared away so we start making the important stuff at home again.

It's an okay economic team if you like engendering an economic slowdown.

(oh wait, Dear Leader forbids that word)

It's an okay economic team if you like en******ing an economic slowdown.

The VP accusing Europe (and others) of being free-loaders - after decades of the US having free-loaded in having the US Dollar accepted as the primary reserve/trade currency (exporting inflation) ... is, for many, a welcome ending to that. Americans standard of living aided by such freeloading are destined to decline. US tariffs will be reciprocated, and more, foreign holding and trading using the Dollar swapped out for gold and suchlike, and the real free-loaders will be reveled as the tide recedes. The US will be fine however, has enough domestic resources/capabilities to self-sustain a isolated, untrusted, self serving 4% of the global population entity. Self misconceptions of grandeur, but where if viewed geographically as a island off the African mainland



has had way more than its fair share of free-loading.

And, we as a country will have no one to blame except for ourselves!

Tesla sales have slumped in Europe, China EV sales are starting to boom.

Trump recently imposing 200% tariffs on some EU items (wines etc.) - and the EU/rest of world could perhaps subsequently respond with a 100% tax on US Dollar FX transactions. A domestic US self-serving market will likely still do OK, might find sourcing some things difficult/impossible, as could exports collapse. Overall the US would more likely have been better placed as-was rather than it will be after Trump's transition aspirations. Ultimately I would suspect that international stocks would rather list/domicile (and pay taxes) in location(s) that provide access to 7.7 billion global population rather than a 300 million isolationist population. For the rest of the world Trump is potentially a very good thing, to be celebrated/encouraged (seeing someone shoot themselves in the foot also provides some comedy/entertainment).

dualstow wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 11:30 am

coasting wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 1:24 am This should cost Hegseth his job immediately - and good riddance.

Was it Hegseth? I thought it was Michael Waltz who blew it.
I’ve forgotten already.

I believe you are correct it was Waltz. But Hegseth completely minimized the issue and evaded any responsibility. Blaming the messenger rather than the team's incompetence.