The featured image comes from a MASH episode, Rally ‘Round The Flagg, Boys. Col. Flagg was a batshit crazy wingnut military intelligence officer who personified a joke that was current during the Vietnam War: Military intelligence is an oxymoron. The Flagg-Winchester picture captures the lunacy of the Hegseth-Goldberg mishigas: Garbage in, garbage out.
In case you’re wondering what I’m on about, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a Team MAGA Signal text thread about an upcoming military operation against the Houthis. Despite the silly name, they’re infinitely more dangerous than the Venezuelan barber who was illegally deported to El Salvador.
Goldberg wrote a piece for his publication that was alternately frightening and hilarious: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.
He thought it was a hoax until the bombs started dropping. Oy, just oy.
In a normal administration, Hegseth and National Security adviser Michael Waltz would be fired or forced out for this inept security breach. This is not a normal administration:
The White House has apparently decided the best course of action is to lie their way through it.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-03-25T12:43:11.743Z
They’re playing to their strength: Lying is what they do best. It helps to have gullible followers who swilled down the Trumpist Kool-Aid long ago.
Dirty Hands Hegseth chimed in with his own denial:
"Nobody was texting war plans" — Pete Hegseth
The initial focus has been on the breach itself, but Josh Marshall thinks it’s worse than that:
Note that no one in the chat is saying, “Hey, we sure it’s cool to be talking about this on Signal?” Or, “Should we be worried this is an insecure channel?” That and the simple logic of the matter tells us this is commonplace in the new administration. You think Mike Waltz got fat fingers and accidentally added Goldberg on the first time out? Not likely.”
Team MAGA thinks that the public’s business is none of our business. We’ve seen it repeatedly. It’s why Trump was indicted in the purloined papers case. He makes no distinction between his personal business and that of the government. In a word: Patrimonialism.
Was Jeffrey Goldberg “inadvertently” added to the Signal text thread? I have a theory about that. The invitation came from National Security adviser, Michael Waltz. It was likely extended by a staffer. The National Security staff consists mostly of career officials. Was the invitation extended because a staffer believes that Hegseth is a dangerous clown in over his head at the Pentagon?
It could just be incompetence, but Jeffrey Goldberg is as widely respected in national security circles as he is reviled at the Trump White House. Remember the leak of Trump’s “perfect phone call” in which he tried to extort President Zelensky into doing his bidding. It led to President Pennywise’s first impeachment. That won’t happen this time, but anything that discredits Team MAGA is fine with me.
All kidding aside, military intelligence should not be a joke. It sends a signal to our adversaries that the members of the Trump regime’s de facto war cabinet don’t know what the hell they’re doing. Pete Hegseth makes Col. Flagg look competent.
What weird form of communication is next for Team MAGA? Smoke signals?
The last word goes to The Band: