Signalgate 🇺🇲🦅🤦

Trump’s playbook for winning was forged on the hardscrabble streets of New York in the 1980s. Under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, Trump learned to never apologise, never give in, never retreat, lie, attack, attack, attack. 

In a media environment operating at warp speed, the limits of that playbook have been put to the test.

You know the story of Signalgate so it won’t be repeated here, but the responses and explanations have been a bit dizzying. To start, it’s worth noting the National Security Council’s response to The Atlantic’s first story in full: 

“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. 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.”

Here was the script everyone needed to follow, “It’s under review.” 

But Hegseth immediately drew attention to the most controversial part. Asked about classified information being shared he replied, “Nobody was texting war plans.” Dragged before the Senate on Tuesday, Gabbard and Ratcliffe said much the same. Trump repeated the line as well, and instinctively blamed an unnamed staffer for the mistake. 

This was the first denial and it was the wrong response. 

The Atlantic had deliberately withheld sensitive details of the chat. The crux of the article had been incredulity at such information being shared over an unsecured network. What’s more, The Atlantic had the full details of the chat which, once the Trump administration claimed wasn’t classified, led the magazine to release the details in full. To the naked eye, the messages sure looked a lot like classified information. 

By 7pm EST that same day, Mike Waltz had thrown a Mike Waltz-shaped wrench into what was already proving to be a difficult story for the administration to manage. Speaking to FOX host Laura Ingraham, Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for the mistake and derided Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic as “the bottom scum of journalists.”

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt joined in saying, “Democrats and their propagandists in the mainstream media know how to fabricate, orchestrate, and disseminate a misinformation campaign quite well." The Trump administration was back on the attack where it feels the most comfortable, flooding the zone. But the damage had already been done. 

According to the Roy Cohn playbook, of which the Trump administration are vociferous adherents, denial is the only option available. In Cohn’s day a quick denial often sufficed; slower information networks allowed missteps to be contained and managed before they could spiral. Today, that luxury is long-gone. The smallest error, the one official out-of-step with the messaging, will be relentlessly amplified in real time. 

What’s incredible is the administration had the response it needed from the start, “we are reviewing”. Sure, further questions would have been asked but that would have bought them the time to suitably offer a head, to implement new policies, to ensure such a breach never occurred again, etc., etc. 

Maybe that’s what the Trump team is discussing now, let’s hope it’s not on Signal.