Ive had a few rebuffs here and there lately telling me to go easy, give Trump a chance, dont pick on him so much. In the March 26 issue of the Register, the Opinion page ran a letter to the editor pointing out some positive actions the president is taking: Too much Trump bashing was its headline.
The letter went on to say: I find it hard to believe that every letter to the editor and every editorial is negative on the actions President Trump has been taking. This president is the first one to take some definitive action to reduce the size of our government. We have more government than we can afford and it has to be stopped or we will go broke. We should be supporting the effort to get our spending under control. It is the only thing that will bring inflation under control.
That being said, I would have to say that we get more con-Trump missives than we do positive ones. I encourage our readers who like the job the president is doing to write The Register and say so. But they dont.
Now before I go further, let me drop in an alhaigian caveat: what I write in the Corner is my opinion only; it is not an editorial stance of The Brookings Register. It is OPINION: no more worthy in that regard than any other written communication submitted to our editor.
In that same March 26 issue, one local military veteran had reacted quickly with a plea to our three men in D.C. over what some people both in and out of government perceived as a lack of security: Its high irony that members of the Security Council would be so reckless in safeguarding security as to use an app that is not a secure government messaging platform to share war plans.
Congressman Dusty Johnson addressed the issue (although not specifically to the writer above) a couple days later in one of his regular communications to his constituents: BIG NEWS: This week the world found out inadvertently that a journalist was added to a Signal group chat where high-ranking government officials discussed military operations to attack Houthi terrorists. This is a big mistake and it can never happen again. While the mission was successful, if this operation got into the wrong hands, U.S. military men and women could have been in big trouble and the operation could have failed. As our national security leaders continue to protect the United States and target terrorists, I hope they will discuss these plans in appropriate settings.
The Trump top team included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who of all the Trump team should certainly have been aware that what he was doing would generate some Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot-Over reactions, who did not own up to any malfeasance.
Also participating in the chat was National Security Adviser Mike Waltz; it appeared that he inadvertently who knows how? invited Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, to the chat.
Once Goldbergs story broke, Hegseth attacked in Shakespearean fashion and tried to kill the messenger, calling him: a deceitful and highly discredited journalist whos made a profession of peddling hoaxes.
Some of Goldberg’s peers note that he has talent and courage as a journalist and editor.
Now it looks like the whole thing, despite a few Democrats calling for Hegseth to resign and some GOP lawmakers calling for an investigation or some lesser punitive action is quickly going away.
We live in a time when mainstream news keeps moving for 24 hours or a bit longer when its bad news. Add to that Facebook and YouTube and you really get a soupy mess. And so we move on.
I like Johnsons noting that a big mistake was made and it must not happen again. Next time the Trump team gets together do it in a SCIF. It might be inconvenient but its safer.
Bottom line: the Trump-team members on the chat looked like a bunch of lightweights; but theyre loyal to the boss and unless one of them screws up really big time, the boss will back them.
For a look at another episode where Hegseth stepped on his crank, I quote from a Corner I started but never finished.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth got off to a shaky start awhile back when he went to meet with the big guys from the European nations with which the United States is aligned. The combat veteran was fast on the draw but his shots showed, at least for now, that hes not ready for diplomatic gunfights on the international scene.
Pistol Pete let it be known that in diplomatic battles to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, the Ukrainians had best not have any delusions about gaining back all the territory taken from them since 2014. And membership in NATO? Forget about it.
Lets not forget that Vice President J.D. Vance had to literally be called in to break the tie in the Senate so Hegseth could be confirmed.
Again, all of the above is my opinion: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. As Montaigne would say: Que scais-je? Id like to hear what you know.
Have a nice day.
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