The level of incompetence in our federal government right now is astounding.

Astounding.

There is no waving it away. There is no ignoring it. Senior officials in this administration are reckless idiots. To half quote the character Logan Roy from Succession, “You are not serious people.”

I’m actively trying not to go down rabbit holes of news and commentary and commentary on the news and commentary on the commentary of the news, which is what the news generally is nowadays. However, this story from The Atlantic is simply astounding. It is one of the largest security breaches ever. Every one of the senior officials on the group chat has to be fired or impeached. The security of the United States is at risk with these people still holding positions of power.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was added by Michael Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor, to a group chat on the commercially available encrypted messaging app Signal. The group chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The messages, shared in the group chat, were sent to Goldberg in the days leading up to the United States launching air and naval strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. What began as policy discussions devolved into sharing explicit details about attack locations, military units involved, and sensitive intelligence about foreign entities. This behavior showed a complete disregard for secure communications protocols.

The idea of a journalist unintentionally being part of a war-planning group with national security leaders and the fact that these leaders would use Signal on their personal phones was so outrageous that Goldberg initially thought the group was a prank aimed at humiliating him. However, it turned out to be completely genuine.

I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president.

When Hegseth sent out a full breakdown of the attack and hours later, everything outlined in the Signal group chat was confirmed, he knew it was real. Goldberg then removed himself from the group chat and sent some messages with some obvious questions.

Earlier today, I emailed Waltz and sent him a message on his Signal account. I also wrote to Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard, and other officials. In an email, I outlined some of my questions: Is the “Houthi PC small group” a genuine Signal thread? Did they know that I was included in this group? Was I (on the off chance) included on purpose? If not, who did they think I was? Did anyone realize who I was when I was added, or when I removed myself from the group? Do senior Trump-administration officials use Signal regularly for sensitive discussions? Do the officials believe that the use of such a channel could endanger American personnel?

This is all too real. The White House confirmed all of this happened, with a spokesperson saying the message thread appears to be “an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

HINT: Because they are grossly incompetent.

Why were they even using Signal? Heather Cox Richardson has the right idea.

The decision to steer around government systems was possibly an attempt to hide conversations, since the app was set to erase some messages after a week and others after four weeks. By law, government communications must be archived.

…

…the use of Signal may also have violated the Espionage Act, which establishes how officials must handle information about the national defense. The app is not approved for national security use, and officials are supposed either to discuss military activity in a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, or to use approved government equipment.

All the government officials in the group chat have broken the law. It absolutely is a breach of the Espionage Act. They were not only discussing timing, weapons packages, and intelligence assessments, but they did so on an unsecured app using personal devices, oblivious that a prominent journalist was included in the conversation in real time. Nothing happened when Goldberg removed himself from the group. They didn’t know he was there, had no idea they were breaking the law, and were too incompetent to understand any ramifications.

These officials, entrusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets and serving in crucial government positions with significant authority and discretion, were behaving like teenagers—sending emojis and chest-thumping messages.

These are unserious people.

All of their personal phones have to be confiscated, searched, and checked for classified communications, classified documents, and, you know, spyware. It isn’t going to happen because we don’t have serious people in charge.

This is the movie Idiocracy come to life. It’s amateur hour. It’s a clown show.

More and more, I’m leaning into the idea that Trump himself is a mouthpiece or maybe a figurehead. He sits there saying the stupidest things imaginable to the press, to show off his signature on mostly meaningless executive orders, and then to go play golf. He has no insight into what is happening in this government. He’s worried about a painting of him in Colorado and pressing the Diet Coke button on the Resolute Desk. This imbecile has a facsimile of the Constitution in the Oval Office, and he thinks it’s the real deal.

Republicans claimed Biden wasn’t really in charge during his Presidency and had little evidence to support the accusation. This story begs the question of who is in charge now, plus there are receipts.

At the end of the day, the bare minimum should be Waltz fired, and the rest resign. I’ll be shocked if anything like that happens.

One additional note, I hope Jeffrey Goldberg has good security.