The Story Of The Year For Many Reasons

The Trump Administration Creates A Signal Group

Hi All,

So I was in the midst of writing a post about a meeting I was at last week, with some senior diplomatic/intelligence people from across Europe (no names or exact quotes to be used). It was actually depressing in a way that will not surprise many of you. Hope has definitely not died in some very senior places.

So, I was writing this piece about how we need to look back on European-US relations over the last decades and realize that Europeans were far more pro-American (or at least American-dependent) than we ever understood; that they really believed the USA would always be there for them, that Americans loved NATO, that the USA was actually a far more serious and committed place than it has turned out to be.

And as I was writing, the greatest story of the year (maybe decade) dropped in The Atlantic.

Here is a gift link for those who want to read it (before the gift link runs out).

Look, I know I might be biased as I write for The Atlantic—but believe, this story really is amazing, jaw-dropping, astonishing, frightening, cringe-inducing—-use whatever superlative you want. It turns out that the leaders of the Trump administration from VP JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Stephen Waltz, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and close Trump advisers Steve Witkoff and Stephen Miller (and others) set up a Signal chat to discuss the plan to bomb the Houthis in Yemen last week.

And, hold your hats, they also added the Editor in Chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the Signal group.