Signalgate and more
This edition dives into Signalgate's national security breaches and other political news
I’ve been meaning to write about Signalgate for the past few days. Unfortunately, I was swamped between screeners (The Studio and Fight for Glory: 2024 World Series), basketball, and reading. I finally finished reading Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the Revolution by H.W. Brands. A book review will be written later this week.
I had an opportunity to meet The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg when he was in town for a Jewish United Fund talk. Since that time, I’ve met him a few other times when The Atlantic held panels at the Sundance Film Festival. He is an American hero and that just goes without saying. Goldberg first went public on March 24, before later publishing more screenshots on March 26.
We might never get to the bottom of why the National Security Advisor invited Goldberg to the Signal chat. For this reason, we might never get to the bottom of why high-ranking government officials were using a messaging app that agencies recently said were not safe for even sensitive information. How much of this was actually classified information and what adverse effects will it have on relationships with other countries? We know that they used Israeli intelligence and Israeli officials are furious.
Attorney General Pam Bondi doesn’t appear to want to investigate the matter. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz might keep his job, even though he shouldn’t. You don’t commit a national security breach like this and keep your job. Hell, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had to chime in with her thoughts. But her emails, right?
It’s not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it’s the stupidity. We’re all shocked — shocked! — that President Trump and his team don’t actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws. But we knew that already. What’s much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That’s dangerous. And it’s just dumb.
Sen. Mitch McConnell has slammed the administration’s peace talks with Russia. Unlike a good amount of people in his party, he is not an isolationist. Of course, he’s a reason why we’re in the position we’re in right now—had he done the right thing, he could have made sure the convicted felon would have never returned to the White House.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this administration doesn’t really care to fight antisemitism. They are just using Jews as political pawns. If they were serious, things like this would not be happening:
Then, last week, the University of Maryland announced that its invaluable dataset tracking hate crimes, antisemitism, domestic terrorist attacks and school shootings was also being defunded by the Department of Homeland Security.
A pair of transgender teens have filed a lawsuit against the admin over its ban of transgender athletes. It’s just another instance of the admin seeking to dehumanize and denationalize transgender Americans.
The admin is forcing contractors in other countries to agree to its racist, sexist, and xenophobic views if they want to work with the United States. It’s utter BS.
The document said: “Department of State contractors must certify that they do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable anti-discrimination laws and agree that such certification is material for purposes of the government’s payment decision and therefore subject to the False Claims Act.” […]
“American interference in the inclusion policies of French companies — such as threats of unjustified tariffs — is unacceptable,” the French foreign trade ministry said in a statement.
“France and Europe will defend their companies, their consumers, and also their values.”
Who knew that “Make America Great Again” meant Make America Rank Worse Than Ever and Ruin Friendships With Our Allies Next Door and Abroad. They know absolutely nothing about how tariffs work, seeing as how he doesn’t seem to realize that they are a tax on importers and consumers, not the country exporting the product. One major US steel manufacturer has already announced plans to lay off 600 employees.
The felon told NBC News that he “couldn’t care less” if automakers raise their prices. Higher prices mean people are not going to buy unless they absolutely have to do so.
When pressed if he told CEOs not to raise prices, as reported in the The Wall Street Journal, Trump added, “No, I never said that. I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars.”
Trump continued, “I couldn’t care less. I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”
Asked if he was concerned about car prices going up, Trump said, “No, I couldn’t care less, because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they’re going to buy American cars.”
Here’s how much of an idiot that he is: White House aides followed up with NBC News to say that he was talking about foreign cars, not American cars. Americans should join international leaders in condemning the man-child for his foolish behavior. This isn’t leadership. He’s running America into the ground in the same way he ran his casinos into the ground.
Liberation Day, my tuchas. This isn’t liberation—this is just another way to strain the American economy. International tourists—including friends in Canada—have cancelled trips to America. It’s going to have a negative impact in the worst way. Experts suggest it’ll cost America about $60-120 billion.
According to The World Travel and Tourism Council, the American tourism sector contributed $2.36 trillion to the country's GDP in 2023 while accounting for a roughly 11 percent share of the total U.S. job market.
People are going to either stay home or spend their money elsewhere. There are no shortage of Canadians who snowbird in Florida or California. These days, for now, appear to be over. Why would they travel here when there’s the chance that ICE or CPB could order them detained over anti-Trump views?
Speaking of traveling, the lack of Canadians coming into the US is an unfortunate win for Americans looking to travel to Canada, especially for work. I stress unfortunate because prices have dropped substantially compared to where they were before the trade war began. Obviously, press credentials are still pending but this is expected to be my first time back on the ground at TIFF since 2022. I didn’t attend in 2023 because of the double strikes and the lack of freelance work in 2024—on top of not getting paid for previous freelance work—impacted my budget.
In sports news, Bruce Pearl could become the third Jewish coach to advance to the Men’s Final Four should the Auburn Tigers win today. Duke’s Jon Scheyer and Florida’s Todd Golden are both American-Israeli.