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LOOMERED: It’s our job here at SpyWeek to tell what happened in the intelligence world last week, but let’s pause for a minute to consider what didn’t happen.
No one was fired for Signalgate. The staggering incompetence that Trump’s national security team displayed—planning an impending strike on Yemen on the Signal messaging app and mistakenly inviting a journalist to the chat—would have been met with swift consequences in any other White House. Indeed, in 2016, Republicans, including no less than future Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded the arrest of Hillary Clinton for conducting government business over her personal email server. It’s not even a fireable offense in the Trump 2.0 administration.
With the financial markets crashing, most people have already moved on. Steven Stebbins, the Defense Department’s Acting Inspector General, opened an investigation into whether Hegseth shared classified information when he shared detailed information on imminent U.S. strikes, including what weapons would be used and when they would occur, via the Signal app. But the White House declared that the case is now “closed.” Let’s see how long he lasts.
Over at the White House, the only one reportedly left on shaky ground by Signalgate was National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.