Trump shifts blame for Signalgate texts onto 'lower level' mystery employee

[Eugene]

Source: The Independent

Trump shifts blame for Signalgate texts onto ‘lower level’ mystery employee

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump offered a new theory on how journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic ended up on a Signal group chat with senior officials discussing bombing plans in Yemen earlier this month

Mike Bedigan
in New York
Wednesday 26 March 2025 05:52 GMT

Donald Trump has shifted the blame for a major security blunder in which details of U.S. military operations in Yemen were leaked to a journalist on a secret group chat to an unidentified, “lower level” White House employee that worked for his National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

Trump offered the new theory in an interview on Newsmax Tuesday evening on how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, ended up on the Signal group chat in which the top-secret plans were discussed.

“What it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission, somebody that was with Mike Waltz, worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level, had, I guess, Goldberg's number or called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call,” the president said.

Trump’s explanation followed an earlier TV appearance by Waltz, who took “full responsibility” for allowing Goldberg to gain access to the discussions.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-newsmax-interview-signal-text-blame-b2721590.html

Alternate link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-shifts-blame-signalgate-texts-014254682.html

________________________________________________

The Rump administration is full bullshit mode. Anything but the truth is spewing out, anything.

[Prairie Gates]

1. Oh, so lower level employees can add anyone to the chat with no oversight?

Remarkably, this excuse (though surely bullshit meant to save Watlz) makes it even worse.

It's harder to jump on the Zoom for a 200 level college class than it is to get on the Houthi PC Small Group channel?

[gab13by13]

2. This has nothing to do with Goldberg

this is a right wing talking point.

Not including Goldberg in the group chat would not have made what they did legal.

Where are Democrats controlling the narrative?

[Irish_Dem]

3. Lower level employees can log in any random person to a meeting of high level govt employees?

[calguy]

4. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the coffee boy

[eppur_se_muova]

5. O. Z. Staffer strikes again ! nt

[Biophilic]

6. F'ing cowards.

That’s it, hide behind your “lower level” employees. What a crock of shit. These are really horrible people.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. President Bystander: Trump appears out of the loop in his own White House

Confronted with key questions about life-or-death issues, the president is offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.
https://bsky.app/profile/trending.bscope.app/post/3llexq2c4mw2m

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/president-bystander-trump-appears-loop-white-house-rcna198357

Given all of this, it stands to reason that Donald Trump would be up to speed on the details and the status of the search for the American service members. He is, after all, the president and the commander in chief of the armed forces. And yet, HuffPost noted:

Donald Trump appeared unaware on Wednesday that four U.S. soldiers had gone missing during a NATO training exercise in Lithuania. When asked by a reporter if he had been briefed on the situation that began to unfurl hours before, the president replied, “No, I haven’t.”

He didn’t elaborate. In fact, the president simply moved on to another question.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3llcri5hhvg2b

Link to tweet

......Taken together, it’s difficult not to wonder just how out of the loop the president is in his own White House.

Five years ago this month, as the severity of the pandemic came into focus, The New York Times published a memorable analysis that included a word to describe Trump that stood out for me as significant: “bystander.”

“While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president,” the Times explained.

A half-decade later, it appears President Bystander has returned. Trump has taken a keen interest in playing golf, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, banning paper straws, watching an enormous amount of television and helping steer the Kennedy Center — but on life-or-death issues, he’s offering the public a lot of shrugged shoulders and blank stares.

For a president who’s heavily invested in the idea that his immediate predecessor had no idea what was going on around him, Trump’s apparent cluelessness should be a serious problem.

[tanyev]

8. That's the new lie to kick the can down the road a little further.

You just keep kicking until something new finally replaces the story you don’t want to talk about.

[kacekwl]

9. It's one of the "many people"

trump always speaks of.