In March 2025, Vice-President Vance and other top Trump Administration officials disclosed state secrets in a group chat called ‘Signal’. They mentioned particulars of planned air strikes on Houthi rebel positions in Yemen. The National Security Advisor was also a member of the group chat.
The NSA was totally insecure in his handling of America’s secrets. The Director of the CIA was also on the group chat. Let that sink in. The man in charge of American spying all around the world was revealing operationally sensitive secrets on an insecure group chat!
The group chat added a well-known journalist named Jeffrey Goldberg, who is an outspoken castigator of Team Trump. They did not even think who he was before he joined. He has no security clearance. It was lucky for the group chat members that Goldberg is an ethical journalist and not a foreign spy. They did not verify his identity. A foreign spy could have falsely used Goldberg’s name to join the group chat.
The group chat was an egregious breach of security. Ordinary people would be prosecuted for such laxity. The details of the planned attacks on Yemen could have been leaked to America’s enemies. This would have led to the deaths of Americans and the Houthis getting out of the way.
Foreign governments are now chary about sharing secrets with the USA. They worry that their secrets will be revealed. In Trump’s first presidential term, he blurted out some secrets to Russian diplomats that the Israelis had shared with the United States. Trump’s Alzheimer’s means he will do this more and more.
When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State (i.e. Foreign Minister) she used a private server to send highly confidential government emails. When this came to light she was excoriated for it by the Republican Party. Mrs. Clinton deleted thousands of emails lest they reveal embarrassing information about her.
Hillary Clinton was investigated by the FBI about the email security breach. The investigation was closed and then reopened in the summer of 2016. This was at a crucial stage in the electoral cycle. The investigation was closed again after a fortnight. But it seriously harmed her campaign. In a very closely fought election, it may have decisively tipped the balance in favour of Trump.
It is richly ironic that the Republican Party, which savaged Hillary Clinton, should have committed an even worse breach of security.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the Washington, DC journalist who gained access to the group chat under his real name, did not reveal the secrets. However, he published the fact that the Vice President and his acolytes had been extraordinarily slack about guarding the nation’s secrets.
On Signal, Vice-President Vance and others ripped into their allies. The European Union was the object of their deepest disdain. J D Vance said that the United States should not care about the Suez Canal since it accounts for only 3% of US trade but 40% of EU trade.
J D Vance has a very hardnosed and unsentimental view of Europe. He claims he is on the side of the common man in Europe. Mr. Vance said that Europeans are ‘freeloaders’ on the US for defence because European countries spend so little on defence. Some of this is unsurprising. Vance has publicly expressed these views.
The Democrats have gone on the attack about the Signal Scandal. Since their defeat by Trump in 2024, the party has been rather quiet and dispirited. The Democrats are depressed by losing the election in popular vote for the first time since 2004. The demographics are moving their ways, and they are still lost.
The Five Eyes Agreement has been the lynchpin of US intelligence since 1945. The agreement involves five nations hence the name Five Eyes. They are New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom. They share all secret intelligence.
Since 9/11, some Americans have argued against this unequal bargain. The US has nearly five times the population of the next largest Five Eyes nations: the UK. American intelligence resources are commensurately greater than those of the United Kingdom and other Five Eyes members.
Trump’s offensiveness and his open contempt for longstanding American allies have put the Five Eyes Agreement in danger. It is widely suspected that the US does not share all secret information with the other Five Eyes countries. The US was spying on the European Union under Obama: back then, the United Kingdom was an EU member. The USA did not share details of its espionage in the UK with the British!
The United States faces a rising threat from China. The US needs all the friends it can get. President Trump has slapped huge tariffs on Mexico, Canada, the European Union and other countries. Canada has had cordial relations since Canada achieved quiddity in 1867. Trump has made hyper aggressive and offensive remarks about Canada. The US and Canada have a demilitarised border.
Neither sends troops to it because they trust the other side so much. He has gravely impaired relations with a friendly nation. This will redound to America’s disadvantage. The Progressive Conservative Party was due to win the 2025 election in Canada. But that party is now seen as Trump-aligned. Trump’s stupid rudeness seems to have saved the Liberal Party in Canada. The Liberals are now tipped to win the election.
One day, the USA might need allies and find it has alienated them all.
The conceit, contemptuousness, hubris, incompetence and imbecility of the Trump Administration that they should say these things on a group chat that was totally insecure has come to public view. The chaos and dysfunction in the Trump Maladministration are likely to be exacerbated.
There is a high chance that Trump will die in office. His Vice President would automatically succeed him. Being 39, it might be thought that Vance would behave better. Vance is not senile, but he is irresponsible, bigoted and irascible.
