Journalist Andrew Neil has revealed the true extent of President Trump’s feelings on the farcical security blunder currently engulfing his administration. In typical fashion, the forthright Neil did not hold back in his views on the antics of Trump’s top team, who used a commercial messaging act to share highly classified material, seemingly unaware that a left-leaning journalist had been added to the chat.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Neil detailed how furious the US leader was about the incident. Neil wrote: “Whatever his displays of public support, Trump is privately furious, raging in colourful language at the ‘stupidity’ of Waltz and others. I called a close aide of the President for a heads-up on the situation.
“‘The President is on the rampage,’ I was told. ‘It’s not safe to talk. I’m keeping my head down.’ He then hung up.”
Yesterday, it emerged that a group of senior figures in Trump’s administration including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the head of the National Security Agency Michael Waltz had discussed plans for strike in Yemen on the messaging platform Signal.
Signal is a commercial messaging app with a higher level of encryption than other forms, such as WhatsApp.
However, it provides nowhere near the standard of protection offered by sophisticated systems provided by US intelligence for discussing confidential plans.
Seemingly unbeknownst to the group, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, a US polling magazine that has been less than favourable towards Trump, was also included.
Today, participants were grilled by senators on the fiasco, which has caused huge embarrassment for the government and had the potential to put the lives of service personnel in danger.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard refused to confirm that she had been included in the group but emphasised that no confidential plans had been shared.
Mr Goldberg has so far refused to release the most sensitive messages included in the exchange in order to preserve what remains of their compromised secrecy.
Neil added: “Goldberg has not published these texts, which shows he has a higher regard for national security than others on the Signal chain.
“But he knows a congressional committee might well request him to make the texts available behind closed doors. It could also insist others in the chat room to do the same.”
It remains to be seen who, fi anybody, will be held accountable for the seismic security breach, with Trump claiming not to have heard about the incident when asked by reporters yesterday.
Earlier today, Hegseth protested that the story was a “hoax” whilst trying to discredit Goldberg’s journalistic credentials.
Embarrassingly, the former tv commentator has been a vocal critic of Hilary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in the White House.