CIJR | Canadian Institute for Jewish Research
L'institut Canadien de Recherches sur le Judaisme

Analysis

The Trump Foreign-Policy Team’s Real Problem

Steve Witkoff said gaining the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a ‘top priority for us’. (AP pic) 
SOURCE FMT
Steve Witkoff said gaining the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a ‘top priority for us’. (AP pic) SOURCE FMT

Jonathan S. Tobin

JNS, Mar. 26, 2025

“… once the president admitted the error, that was effectively the end of the story, despite the interest of left-wing media to keep it alive.”

It was the gaffe that critics of the Trump administration have been praying for. However it happened, the inclusion of Atlantic  editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a group chat on the Signal App among the administration’s leading defense policymakers about an impending attack on the Houthis in Yemen, was a gob-smacking blunder of epic proportions.

It not only embarrassed participants in the conversion, like Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. It called into question the competence of President Donald Trump’s national-security team and the process by which      it communicates and shares information at the highest level.

If, as appears to be the case, it was Waltz’s office that  was responsible for connecting Goldberg to the chat, it’s something he’ll never entirely live down, even if Trump is prepared to forgive him.

But as much as Goldberg’s unwitting scoop deserved the headlines and the endless discussions it generated, it was actually not the most troubling news event of the week for Trump’s national-security team. ….SOURCE

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