By Jon Bauer / Herald Opinion Editor
We don’t know about you, but we’re going to start paying more attention to the invitations we get togroup chats.
Well, they couldn’t use TikTok now, could they? The revelation that several Trump national security officials, in particular Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, discussed an attack plan against a Houthi settlement in Yemen in a group chat on the Signal app — with a national journalist mistakenly allowed to read along — appears to have violated protocol for classified information. Among details shared with the executive editor of The Atlantic were the aircraft and weapons to be used and the timing of the attack. Waltz created the chat, which included the journalist, while Hegseth released detailed attack information hours prior to the operation.
Shouldn’t someone check to make sure Hegseth didn’t post the same information for his gamer bros on 4Chan?
Loose lips cause barely a blip: President Trump, after being briefed on the exchange, showed little concern, describing the leak of sensitive information as “a glitch.”
Trump did tell Hegseth to send him a printout of the exchange for safekeeping in a cardboard box in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago.
Wait just an OPSEC: Hegseth, meanwhile, seems to contradict himself with his insistance that no sensitive information was shared in his posts. Midway through the chat as he describes the F-18s and when they’d be above targets, posts: “We’re are currently clean on OPSEC,” a reference to operational security.
Or perhaps he mistyped and meant, “Opps, ech!” Understandable. We have fat fingers, ourselves.
When a “thumbs up” just isn’t enough: Among other details in the chat, several participants used emojis, including Waltz who, after Hegseth revealed that a target building had collapsed in the strike, posted a fist emoji, an American flag emoji and a fire emoji in celebration. Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East peace envoy responded with two prayer emojis, a flexed bicep and two American flags.
If it’s surprising that U.S. officials, concerned for their masculine image, might use the texting language of 14-year-old girls, it’s a little-known fact that Gen. George Washington, during the winter at Valley Forge, used emojis in written notes to send coded messages to Philadelphia. In one case, Washington, running low on food, warm clothing and supplies wrote: “Prayer emoji, chicken drumstick emoji, socks emoji, fire emoji and two American flag emojis” — Betsy Ross flags, of course.
All the way from the Kennedy Center, ladies and gentlemen, “Cats”! Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday toured the U.S. Pittufik Space Base in northwest Greenland, which is largely autonomous but is provided security by Denmark. During the visit, the vice president told the people of Greenland that they’d be better off as a part of the U.S. rather than Denmark. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” he said.
Really, just wait until Greenlanders see the arts programming that President Trump has planned for the cultural center in Nuuk.
My own privates, Idaho: Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill that criminalizes the public exposure of breasts, including male breasts altered to look like female breasts. The law, charging the crime as a misdemeanor on the first offense and a felony on the second offense, also applies to toys or products that look like male or female genitalia, including “truck nuts,” fake testes that can be hung from a truck’s trailer hitch. The bill takes effect immediately — and we are not making this up, because it’s not in italics — through an emergency clause.
An emergency? The governor’s mother must be visiting next week.
Who needs Idaho? Hot off its featured spot as a showroom floor for Tesla. President Trump’s White House is looking to recruit corporate sponsors to next month’s Easter Egg Roll, allowing companies to profit from association with the 147-year-old tradition. A $200,000 contribution gets the sponsor a booth, logo placements, branded snacks and beverages, a White House tour and lunch with First Lady™ Melania Trump.
Here’s your chance for maximum exposure, Bulls Balls Truck Nuts. Proudly made in the U.S.A.
Email Jon Bauer at jon.bauer@heraldnet.com. Follow him on Blue Sky at jontbauer@bsky.social.
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