Applebaum: Signalgate and the Authoritarian Playbook

And why this scandal may be different

Charlie Sykes

Mar 27, 2025

We’ve been through this so often that I really hesitate to write: This time could be different. I know that nothing matters and that our alternative reality silos can bend any reality beyond recognition. But this is a story with legs — and the lies, excuses, word games, and whataboutism of the wretched hive are making a bad thing even worse.

“For the first time arguably since the election,” reports Axios, “Trump's allies have lost control of the public narrative — including on X, the platform owned by the president's billionaire adviser Elon Musk.”

Trump's FUBAR. Hegseth's Dishonor.

Charlie Sykes

Mar 25

Read full story

And there’s some evidence that the scandal is breaking through: Top Trump officials' Signal blunder becomes top news story of 2025.

Rarely do U.S. national security stories gain this much traction so quickly around the world.
#SignalGate is more than just a revelatory report, it's a viral sensation that's driving meme mania online.
#SignalGate was the top story in the world across all English-language articles, according to NewsWhip, which measures social media engagement across Facebook and X.
Zoom out: Most stories that go viral on social media tend to be feel-good tales about everyday people or fear mongering stories about accidents or crime.
The Atlantic has managed to uniquely penetrate the social zeitgeist with just plain journalism, which is rare.

Check out this graphic:

On today’s “To the Contrary” Podcast, I’m joined by The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum for a dive into the latest developments on the story; how it plays into Trump’s authoritarian playbook; and our predictable — but still shocking — slog toward autocracy. You can listen/watch right here, or: Watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.

Happy Thursday.

No, you’re not the crazy one. And we’re here to remind you of that every day. To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Worser and worser

The whole absurd story was really bad from the beginning: the arrogance, the recklessness, and the carelessness.

But MAGA finds itself in — dare I say it? — disarray, tangled in their indiscretion and flailing for defenses of the indefensible. Trump’s folks first tried to deflect, then lied about it under oath, and then — when The Atlantic called their bluff and published the detailed Houthi attack plans — fell back on risible semantic excuses for this:

Pete Hegseth, who picked an inauspicious time to stop chugging gin, tried mocking the bombshell: “No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods."

But this was stupid with fur on it. As David French pointed out: “Those plans included the time of the attacks and described the attacking force. That's incredibly valuable, highly classified information. Think of it like this -- if the Houthis had it, they could have taken immediate action to launch missiles and move high value targets.”

How bad was Hegseth’s spin? It was demolished on (checks notes) Fox News by reporter Jennifer Griffin:

There is a debate about whether the operational details Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared in the Signal Group Chat were “classified” or not. So I surveyed a range of current and former US defense officials who agreed “war plans” is not the right term but what was shared may have been FAR MORE sensitive given the operational details and time stamps ahead of the operation, which could have placed US military pilots in harm’s way.
What Hegseth shared two hours ahead of the strikes were time sensitive “attack orders” or “operational plans” with actual timing of the strikes and mention of F18s, MQ9 Reapers and Tomahawks. This information is typically sent through classified channels to the commanders in the field as “secret, no forn” message. In other words the information is “classified” and should not be shared through insecure channels.
“Attack orders” or “attack sequence” puts the joint force directly and immediately at risk, according to former senior defense official #1. “It allows the enemy to move the target and increase lethal actions against US forces.”
This kind of real time operational information is more sensitive than “war plans,” which makes this lapse more egregious, according to two former senior US defense officials.
“This information was clearly classified,” according to former senior defense official #1.
The Defense Secretary can retroactively declassify information after the fact, but the fact that this was shared in real time before the strike took place makes it unlikely to have been declassified when it was being shared and seen by the journalist for The Atlantic who was inadvertently included in the Signal chat.
According to a second former senior US defense official, when Hegseth says he didn’t release “war plans” that is pure semantics. These were “attack plans.” “If you are revealing who is going to be attacked (Houthis – the name of the text chain), it still gives the enemy warning. When you release the time of the attack – all of that is always ‘classified’.”

Others in MAGA world are blaming the Deep State, attacking The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, and suggesting convoluted conspiracy theories. Here’s Federalist CEO Sean Davis, whose eyeballs seem to be spinning like pinwheels:

All of this took the already meme-able story to the next level. Wrote Tom Nichols:

Watching them flail, make excuses, and try to evade responsibility is both nauseating and amusing.
But realizing the risks these senior officials took with the lives of American military personnel is enraging—and should be to every sensible American, no matter their party or cause.

And the story keeps getting worse. The German magazine Der Spiegel managed to find all sorts of random private data that the Trump folks left lying around: “Hegseth, Waltz, Gabbard: Private Data and Passwords of Senior U.S. Security Officials Found Online” - DER SPIEGEL

Private contact details of the most important security advisers to U.S. President Donald Trump can be found on the internet. DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.
To do so, the reporters used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web. Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data. There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases.

And there’s so much more: