"Yemen Plans? Oops, Wrong Signal Chat"

These blunders strike at the very foundation of national security, financial stability, and the last remaining threads of American credibility.

I’ve always maintained that if you gave President Trump’s sycophantic band of misfits a golden goose, they would somehow manage to strangle it, deep-fry it, and blow up the entire poultry farm. But this past week? It was a PHD masterclass in incompetence. Four catastrophic blunders, each one exposing the reckless, sloppy, and downright dangerous nature of the Trump administration. And while we’ve become somewhat numb to the chaos, these screw-ups hit differently. They strike at the very foundation of national security, financial stability, and the last remaining threads of American credibility.

Let me set the stage for you. You’re Jeffrey Goldberg, the esteemed editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, scrolling through your phone when; ding!, you receive a Signal message. Yup, Signal, the encrypted phone app. But this isn’t just any text. No, this is a classified operational war plan concerning the Houthi rebels in Yemen, accidentally sent to you by the United States Department of Defense. I’m serious, you can’t make this up.

How did this happen? Well, because the current National Security Advisor accidentally added Goldberg to a Signal group chat. The thread included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the Fox & Friends weekend warrior, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, and Senior White House Advisor Stephen Miller. These geniuses were openly exchanging highly sensitive war plans, as if they were organizing a Fourth of July barbecue or ordering a late night pizza party.

Now, let’s talk about the glaring hypocrisy. For years, Trump foamed at the mouth, demanding Hillary Clinton’s head on a pike for her use of a private email server. “Lock her up!” became a MAGA battle cry. And yet here we are, with the Trump administration using Signal; an unsecured app, to pass around top-secret military plans like gossip. The irony is staggering. The danger is real. This wasn’t just careless, it was criminal.

And Trump? Well, Captain Accountability has insisted he knew nothing about it. Nothing. Apparently, his Secretary of Defense, Vice President, and top intelligence brass managed to conduct and accidentally leak a covert war strategy without the President’s knowledge. Right. Because nothing says "commanding leader of the free world" like being the last guy to know about your own military operations

Next up in Trump’s greatest hits of idiocy: Greenland. Yes, you read that right. Greenland is back on the menu and he’s at it again, dusting off the old Harry Truman playbook from the 1940s. You see, Truman briefly entertained the idea of purchasing Greenland for $100 million in gold to strengthen America’s Arctic defense. Unlike Trump, Truman abandoned the idea once it was clear that Greenlanders wanted no part of it.

But Trump? He doesn’t take no for an answer. His administration is once again floating the fantasy of acquiring Greenland, despite a Gallup poll showing that 70% of Americans oppose the idea and 85% of Greenlanders rejecting any notion of becoming American. But why bother with facts when you’ve got propaganda? Just ask Donald Jr., who went on a media blitz claiming Greenlanders were “begging” to become Americans. Right. All 57,000 of them, desperate to join a nation that can’t even protect its own military secrets.

It’s absurd. It’s delusional. And it’s telling. This is how Trump’s administration views foreign policy; through the lens of real estate deals. To them, Greenland isn’t a sovereign territory; it’s beachfront property with oil reserves. And what’s the point of war plans and military security if you can’t profit from it?

And just when you thought Trump’s team couldn’t possibly be more out of touch, along comes Secretary of the Commerce Howard Lutnick with a verbal gaffe so astoundingly detached from reality, it could make Marie Antoinette blush. During a press conference addressing possible widespread delays in Social Security payments, Lutnick dismissed the very real struggles of everyday Americans by suggesting that anyone complaining about not receiving their Social Security check was probably a fraudster.

But wait; it gets worse. Lutnick, with all the empathy of a hedge fund algorithm, then offered this pearl of wisdom: his 94-year-old mother-in-law would simply wait until the next month if her check was late. No big deal. After all, she can just coast until the next direct deposit hits, right? Sure; when your daughter is married to a billionaire and can float you however many tens of thousands you might need to cover the gap.

Here’s the problem: the vast majority of Americans do not have a billionaire son-in-law. They don’t have luxury yachts to fall back on when rent or mortgage payments are due. For most seniors, missing a Social Security check doesn’t mean skipping the foie gras; it means missing rent, utilities, or vital medication. The sheer callousness of Lutnick’s remarks laid bare just how detached from reality this administration is.

Again, these gaffes all reflect back poorly onto their boss, President Trump himself. And why? Well, even Trump himself at a recent press conference acknowledge that the buck stops with him when asked by a journalist about decisions and actions being taken by people within the administration.

The same administration that claims to be fighting for the forgotten man/woman, the trucker, the factory worker, the middle-class retiree; now smugly tells them to stop whining when their Social Security check doesn’t arrive. The unvarnished truth is that Trump’s elite circle, filled with billionaires and Wall Street cronies, has no concept of the financial realities that average Americans face. And worse, they don't give a shit.

Perhaps the most alarming part of this disastrous week isn’t just the incompetence; it’s the sheer lack of leadership. Trump’s repeated claims of ignorance regarding the leaked war plans are terrifying. Either he genuinely had no clue that his administration was plotting military operations behind his back, which makes him a figurehead in his own White House, or he’s lying through his teeth, which is equally troubling.

This is not the man I knew for a decade and a half. The man who once micromanaged the Trump Organization with an iron fist. Believe me, I know. When I was at the Trump Organization, gaffes like these didn’t occur; ever. We all knew that Trump would never stand for it. Not a chance. Every deal, every project, every major decision went through him. Period. No one; no one, went rogue. If they did, they were tossed out so fast they’d leave a vapor trail.

They’re embarrassing him; not just to the nation but to the entire world. Trump may pretend to shrug it off, but make no mistake, behind closed doors, he’s seething. He never tolerated this level of amateur-hour buffoonery in his private business, and he sure as hell won’t tolerate it as President. Someone’s getting the axe, and if not, they all should.

Under any other president; any other president, this week’s debacles would have resulted in immediate mass firings, congressional investigations, and public outrage. But not under Trump. Because incompetence and deception are baked into the MAGA brand. Whether someone will be held accountable, we will see. Hegseth will continue to bungle national security. Vance will keep playing lapdog. Lutnick will keep flaunting his billionaire bubble arrogance. And Trump will keep insisting it’s all “fake news.”

But it’s not fake. Jeff Goldberg has the receipts. The texts. The plans. The evidence. The reality is, this administration is led by amateurs, loyalists, and yes-men who have traded competence for devotion. And the price of that incompetence? Well, it could be measured in lives, global instability, and the continued erosion of America’s standing in the world.

The Trump administration isn’t just reckless; it’s dangerous. And this past week was proof.

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