Hiding in plain sight
There can be no doubt that “Signal-gate” (as it was inevitably going to be called) is THE scandal of the Trump “administration,” until of course they screw up worse. But one aspect to this whole thing had me puzzled at first. Trump claimed to know nothing about it, which is remarkable only in the sense that I think for once he is telling the truth.
Every high ranking criminal who is any high ranking criminal was on the chat. They included national security advisor Mike Walz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, CIA director John (no offense to rats) Ratcliffe, Director of National “Intelligence” Tulsi Gabbard, special envoy Steve Witkoff (who was chatting from Moscow so the Russians could get a better signal into Signal), White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, billionaire Treasury Secretary Scott “Only fraudsters care if their Social Security check is late” Bessent, Secretary of State Marco “Little Marco” Rubio, Deputy national security adviser Alex Wong, National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent, Brian McCormack of the NSC, Walker Barrett, somebody named Jacob and the Prince of Darkness himself, AKA Stephen Miller.
And then there was the guest of honor, of course. Politely sitting in the corner of the chat — too astonished to speak — was Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Sixteen people? I think I counted that right. The question is, where was Trump? I believe that, not only was Trump not invited, he really didn’t know about it because all those people deliberately excluded him.
They know what’s obvious to most of the sane world. Donald Trump is a liability everywhere he goes. He’s so cognitively out there that nobody wants him around. They were hiding from Trump in plain sight.
Trump’s public incoherent blather about Houthis “shooting down ships” (presumably they were also sinking airplanes) is all you need to know about the impact he would have had on the group chat. They might not have admitted it among themselves, but when adults get together to talk about adult things in the White House, Trump is persona non grata.
They need Trump only symbolically, and they need Elon Musk — whom they clearly hate — not at all. The Myth of Trump among the profoundly stupid in the MAGA movement (which is all of them except the sociopathic rich) is that he’s some kind of super hero chosen by God. He is in fact a cognitively disabled old man who can barely keep up.
So how did Goldberg get invited to the Signal Chat? I have a theory about that too. I think he was on Mike Walz’ list because Walz was leaking to him. In the spirit of protecting one’s sources no matter how vile those sources may be, Goldberg will keep quiet about it as long as the DOJ doesn’t go too far and start formally accusing Goldberg of crimes.
In June Trump is going to turn 79, which means we can legitimately start saying he’s in his 80th year. That will be a good time to really double down on how disqualifying his age is. After all, the radical right loonies used that over and over to get rid of Joe Biden. Turnabout is fair play. Meanwhile it’s obvious that the moguls of the Trump “administration” see Trump exactly as clearly as we do, as a cognitively impaired, embarrassingly inappropriate dumbass.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.