The country should thank The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeff Goldberg, for showing that the entire top echelon of the Trump administration was reckless and careless in discussing secret classified military matters on the non-secure commercial messaging app Signal.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz made the blunder of including Goldberg in a group chat about the Pentagon’s attack on the Houthi rebels in Yemen this month along with Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, 18 in all.

Everyone of them except Goldberg broke the rules by discussing secrets on Signal. The U.S. government has, at great expense, created what are called “sensitive compartmented information facilities,” (SCIFs) for that purpose. The SCIFs, not Signal, or Instagram, should be used for war planning.

Good thing that the phone number that Waltz added belonged to Goldberg, who has not published the classified military details that Hegseth broadcast to the group two hours before the strikes or the name of the covert CIA operative who Ratcliffe identified. What if Waltz has inadvertently added someone who would turn the valuable info over to the Russians or the Chinese or the Iranians?

And to think how upset Trump and Republicans were for Hillary Clinton for her using a personal e-mail server.

What devices were all of these officials using? Their personal cell phones? Government-issued phones? Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, a participant in the chat, was in Moscow meeting with Vladimir Putin as the digital conversation was unfolding. Was he carrying the phone on which he was logged into Signal?

The Signal app also features messages that can be permanently deleted, with no record kept anywhere. In addition to violating national security law, its use to organize military and foreign policy is almost certainly illegal under records and oversight provisions. If an operation goes sideways, what record will exist of the high-level planning for Congress and internal watchdogs to probe?

The fact that none of the official participants in the chat raised concerns or even expressed surprise that this was being organized here is a good indicator that it’s not uncommon.

While the FBI is opening a probe into vandalism of Telsas, “This is domestic terrorism,” said FBI Director Kash Patel, is the FBI going to investigate this huge leak of military secrets? Don’t bet on it.

Rather than admit the huge error, the whole Trump cabinet caught with their fingers on their phones, is circling the wagons, with Hegseth out-and-out lying about the incident, saying “nobody was texting war plans” after screenshots were already published by The Atlantic.

What other high-level government business is being conducted in a way that could leave no trace? Signal is reportedly already a frequent choice for officials at all levels of seniority in the second Trump term. Usually, government’s that don’t produce or destroy records of what they’re doing and why are not considered to be operating on the up-and-up.

They should do well to remember that their authority flows up, granted from the public on whose behalf they’re working, not down from some higher power.

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