The signal gone wrong
The Trump administration is currently confronting its first embarrassment because of National Security Advisor Michaeal Waltz setting up a senior group on the social messaging Signal app. According to Wikipedia, Signal “is an American open-source, encrypted messaging service for instant messaging, voice calls, and video calls. The instant messaging function includes sending text, voice notes, images, videos, and other files. Communication may be one-to-one between users or may involve group messaging”. The group included Vice-President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe among other officials. Obviously, by mistake, Waltz, or one of his officials, included The Atlantic magazine Editor-in-Chief Jeffery Goldberg in the Signal app group.
The purpose of the group was to keep abreast of plans approved by President Donald Trump to bomb Houthi strong holds in Yemen so that their capacity to fire missiles in the Red Sea area was eroded. Since end October 2023 the Houthis, who are affiliated with Iran, and have been, it can be surmised, supplied with long range missiles by the Ayatollahs in Tehran, have fired missiles in the Red Sea area, including in the Bab-al-Mandab. There object has been to interrupt international shipping which makes extensive use of the Red Sea to move from the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal into the Red Sea and thence through the Bab-al-Mandab to the Arabian Sea and beyond. The Houthis have partially succeeded because a certain degree of shipping has stopped using these waters and begun to take the much longer route via the Cape of Good Hope from Europe to Asia. The Houthis have also enraged Israel because they have targeted that country with their missiles too.
The Signal app group controversy has several dimensions. The White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has been reported as saying that “the Signal app “was an “approved app” for government use, and “the most safe and efficient way of communicating,” especially when people can’t be in the same room together”. This indicates that the US government allows the use of commercial messaging apps to be used by its senior government officials. Ms Leavitt, however, has not clarified the nature of information that government officials, including cabinet level officials, are allowed to put out using the Signals app. In most countries governments have agencies which create and manage the use of communication electronic systems which are used by government officials, especially at the senior most levels. Surely, the US would have the same kind of agencies. Hence, the question remains as to why Waltz chose to go in for the Signals app and also made sure that its messages would disappear after some time. Thus, no trace would be left of the thread of these Signals exchanges. Naturally all this will be debated in US security circles for a long time.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration and the Republican party have circled the wagons. Trump has dismissed the attacks on the Signals app usage and has adhered to the message that no classified information was put on it. He has, in his characteristic way, lashed out at his critics while maintaining confidence in his officials though he has conceded that this was ‘the only glitch in two months’. But he has stressed that the ‘glitch’ did not result in any harm to the US forces involved in attacking the Houthis. The Democratic party will continue to use this ‘glitch’ to hit out at the Trump administration but it is unlikely to make any dent on the President’s popularity among the faithful.
Two aspect of exchanges between the cabinet officials and Vice President Vance on the Yemen attack reflected on, firstly, domestic concerns and secondly the enormous antipathy which some of Trump’s associates harbour against Europe. Vance initially argued against the attack at this stage for its rationale would not be understood by US domestic constituencies. He felt that the ground had to be prepared so that the necessity to make the Red Sea passage safe for shipping is made more widely known. In this context he noted that while 30% of European shipping used the Red Sea route only 4% of US shipping did. Other members of the Signals group stressed that a delay in the attack would not change the situation regarding US public perceptions and also not change the dynamics with Europe. They emphasised that as Trump had cleared the attack it should go ahead. Vance gave in to these opinions. How Vance’s views on this issue impact his relationship with Trump in the long run remains to be seen.
Vance and Hegseth implied in the Signal app exchanges that Europe must be made to pay for the costs incurred by the US in the attack against the Houthis because the clearance of the Red Sea passage actually benefited European shipping. Hegseth was particularly scathing in his attack on European free loading. This shows that Trump’s constant complaint against Europe for having taking the US for a ride by not undertaking fair burden sharing in meeting Europe’s defence needs has been internalised by Trump’s principal associates and is part of their confidential conversations. There is no doubt that European leaders know that they have to spend much more on European security but this internal conversation revelation would have shaken them nevertheless. This is because it revealed the depth of the Trump administration’s sentiments against them.
In a minor way the Signal app group revelations recalls the Wikileaks episode. That too had embarrassed the Americans but in time the diplomatic world forgot them though it become warier in what it shared with the US. The Signals app situation will eventually go the same way but the Europeans will not take it currently with equanimity.
