Amateur Hour in the Trump Administration

The use of emojis in a leaked Trump administration group chat discussing strikes on Houthi targets has sparked outrage, with accusations that officials made light of the sensitive topics being discussed. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, has revealed that Trump's national security advisor Michael Waltz had added him to a group chat called 'Houthi PC small group'.

The chat appears to have served as a virtual war room for some of the President's top team, including Waltz, Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, Secretary of State Rubio, National Intelligence director Gabbard and Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles.   Goldberg said that Hegseth shared the war plan with the group at 11.44am eastern time on Saturday March 15, two hours before the bombs began dropping on Yemen.

As news broke of the strikes, the journalist checked the group chat where he found a flurry of emojis and congratulations flooding the text chain. Waltz updated the group at 1.48pm, saying the operation had been an 'amazing job' before sending three emojis a few minutes later - a fist, an American flag, and fire.

Parts of the exchange have since been published, and have been met with furious reaction from politicians on both sides and the public, with many expressing disbelief that such a significant security breach could have been allowed to happen.   'Classified details leaked while officials celebrated with fist emojis,' one X user said. 'The emojis are sickening,' wrote another, adding that it shows a 'lack of respect' following the attack on Yemen. German political commentator Nikolaus Blome wrote on the platform: 'Emojis, puberty outbursts, and amateurish war plans: The banality of stupidity.'Mike Waltz using emojis in a National Security/War strategy group chat like he's a 14 year-old,' another person commented.

Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, told news outlet Axios that the administration's action was 'unconscionable'.  "None of this should have been sent on non-secure systems," he said of Waltz's messaging. "Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone."  Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn told reporters that it "sounds like a huge screw-up. I mean, is there any other way to describe it?"  He added: "I don't think you should use Signal for classified information."   Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters: "Think about what we would do if Biden were president and this came out... we would raise the roof.  It's going to be interesting to see if anybody loses their job over this,' she added, while Montana Senator Tim Sheehy simply said: "Somebody fucked up."

Politico reported that officials believe that Waltz must now be pushed out or resign to save President Trump from being put in a bad position.  "Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a fucking idiot," one source, identified as a person close to the White House, bluntly told Politico. 

 The use of Signal rather than more secure government channels to hold these conversations has also raised questions over whether there has been a violation of the Espionage Act, which sets rules for the handling of classified information.