I’ve got to hand it to the Trump Administration—it provides plenty of fodder for writers. So much, in fact, that it’s hard to settle on one subject. Do I long for the boring days of the Biden presidency when it seemed as though there were long stretches of time when not much happened? Indeed I do. I’ve started writing a new book, Iris Starmoss: Elf Detective, and that novel is pulling at me the way all new stories do.
If I had a choice, I would not be living in these times, but as Gandalf noted in The Lord of the Rings, “So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
Therefore, onward to Trump and his not-so-merry Band of Incompetents. Already, many of their actions are harming Maine—cutting funding to libraries, cutting funding to food banks, denying an approved grant to our own Farmer Kev. The effects of this presidency are not abstract, happening to other folks in other states. Instead, they have come home to roost, and I expect this is true across the country.
However, for some reason, I keep coming back to what has become known as SignalGate, when Trump’s team, with a messaging app named Signal, used their phones to discuss an attack on Yemen. While Signal is considered reasonably secure for private use, it is not considered secure enough for governmental/military use. But there was Trump’s team, using Signal to discuss military strikes in Yemen. Who was on that Signal chat? Among them, Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense; J.D. Vance, Vice President; Marco Rubio, Secretary of State; Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence; and Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor. You know, the big guys. The ones we trust to protect our country. And better yet, while in Moscow, Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff joined the discussion to bomb Yemen.
There was also somebody else included in that chat, none other than Jefferey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, a magazine I subscribe to and like very much. You might be wondering why Jefferey Goldberg was added to that chat list. I know I was. Goldberg and The Atlantic are no friends of the Trump Administration, and even if they were, it is unlikely that Goldberg would be involved in plans for an imminent military strike in Yemen.
It’s no surprise, then, that on March 13, when Goldberg discovered he had been included in a group chat with Trump officials, he at first thought it was a hoax. A reasonable suspicion. Then, on March 15, when Goldberg read the sensitive military operations being discussed, he stayed on for another two hours to see if what he was reading was correct. Yes, it was. Bombs and drones started attacking Yemen. Thereupon, Goldberg left the chat.
Of all the journalists and editors to pick for an unplanned leak, Trump’s team of Incompetents couldn’t have chosen anyone better—or worse from their point of view—than Goldberg. He, along with David Remnick from The New Yorker, are two of this country’s great editors leading two of the country’s best magazines. Not easily intimidated, they are erudite and confident. Best of all, they both have something that is sorely lacking in this administration—integrity.
Also, within journalistic circles, both are so well known that as soon as the story broke, all the major news outlets wanted to talk to Goldberg about the Signal farrago. And last week, Goldberg certainly made the rounds, explaining in his clear way what had happened.
To borrow from my British friends, that certainly set the cat among the pigeons. Trump and Co. have been spinning furiously—lying, denying, and trying to pin the blame on Goldberg. At one point, they even called him a spy. But as it turned out, on March 11, Goldberg had received a Signal connection request from Michael Waltz, which meant that the spy accusation lost its fizz.
Now they are trying to minimize the event, maintaining that since the results were good—Yemen was successfully bombed—this is all that matters in the end.
But somehow, at least for the moment, Trump and Co. have not been able to slither out of this one. Perhaps they will, but right now they are feeling the sting of their carelessness, and they look like fools.
I’m going to end with a famous quotation from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
That about describes it.
Notes From the Hinterland 
And now what we want to hope is that they can’t slither out of the many other messes and evil-dos that they’ve embarked on.
Oh, but they are masters of slithering. Like you, I hope some day they are caught.
Yes, that quote covers the situation quite well.
Alas!
Oh Laurie! That quote is perfect. It all appears so….(Sorry, reverting to good old kiwi here) half arsed
Half arsed is right!
Well-penned, Laurie. You nailed it! 👍🏼
Thanks so much!
A very apposite quote.
When the tech bros and politicians talk about breaking things to make them better, they forget that they are often breaking people too and they can’t be so easily repaired. Perhaps they just don’t care
Excellent but heartbreaking observation. I might have to quote you in an upcoming blog. I have the horrible suspicion that for them, cruelty is the point.
It sometimes seems like that.
Not only was signal-gate a breach of security protocols but it gave us Eurpeans an insight into Trump’s cabinet’s true feelings towards Europe
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“US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, on a Trump administration chat group venting about Europe’s “freeloading” to other members of Trump’s cabinet.
European militaries are, according to Hegseth, unable to strike Houthi insurgents in Yemen and protect the Straits of Hormuz, a critical Red Sea squeeze point on the route to and from the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean.
Europe, he wrote, was “PATHETIC”.
Vice president JD Vance agreed.”
Quote from: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41601187.html
IF the King does make good the promise of a state visit to the UK he will not receive a warm welcome.
Oh, yes. Trump and Vance like to dump on Europe. Unfairly so, in my opinion. They are insulting our allies and cozying up to ur adversaries. What a team!
It will come back to bite them.
From your lips to God’s ears.
ETA IF the King does make good the promise of a state visit for Trump to the UK Trump will not receive a warm welcome.
Nope. Nor should he.
It is one of those unbelievable stories…but true.
Right? You can’t make this stuff up. Talk about the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Except there is nothing funny about it.
You have chosen one of my favourite quotations from The Great Gatsby – it is perfect!
One of my favorite quotations and books!
Unbelievable, like so much that’s going on right now.
What a horror this administration is. And. It. Just. Doesn’t. Stop.
Trump reminds me of some of the children I taught who would do anything to get the attention they craved. They caused mayhem in class because being told off, other kids avoiding them, punishments, were all attention and anything was better than being ignored. Before you could address one misdemeanor they had done something else so it was impossible to deal with anything. One in a class was bad enough but if there were several it was impossible as they fed off each other striving to be the most outrageous, to come up with the most dangerous or disruptive idea. Sadly with this crew there is no headteacher to have them sit outside their office, no parents to summon, no exclusion or expulsion to use, no social services or educational psychologist to call in. All I think we can do is batten down the hatches, look out for each other as best we can and ride out the storm.
What a good analogy!In Trump’s first term, there were headteachers who slowed him down. This time around, not so much, which is why things seems so much worse than they did during his first term. It’s so terrible. And scary. Just heard a U.S. Senator say that he didn’t think the elections would be fair in 2026. So Hope he’s wrong, but I think it’s a distinct possibility.
Megalomaniacs don’t give up power easily. Fingers crossed for all of you.
Thanks so much! We need all the good wishes we can get.
I gave up my Atlantic subscription to try Vanity Fair this year. Bad timing!
The incompetence of the sycophants is staggering.
I’m sorry to hear about Farmer Kev.
The incompetence is indeed staggering. I will be writing more about Farmer Kev.
it will take decades to fix the things they have destroyed in a matter of months. Meanwhile people will die.
I fear you are right. So much easier to destroy than it is to create, don’t you think?
It’s sickening. I have lost my faith in people. Today I talked to a neighbor (who I have known supports Trump since 2016) as we walked our dogs. Nice guy, kind of more conservative than me, but that’s ok. Today he was wearing a Brandon T-shirt and a Make America Great Again hat. It was all I could do to discuss the dogs.
Oh, my! Must have been very hard. But good thing the dogs were there. Especially with the get-up he was wearing.
The most telling aspect of all this is that their lies forced Goldberg to expose the truth. Great quotation from Gatsby
Yes, their lies forced Goldberg to expose the truth. A wonderful contradiction. Always have been taken with that quotation. Gatsby is one of my favorite books.
He is coated in super-slick Teflon because none of his minions let it stick.
He can do whatever he wants and nothing seems to stick. A dark kind of luck?
You chose a perfect quote to sum it all up!
Oh, thanks! One of my favorite books, which I reread from time to time.
I am looking forward to see “Iris Starmoss: Elf Detective” completed, Laurie!
The quote from Gandolf in LOTR is a good one. Thank you for that. Tolkien was a wise man and great writer.
He certainly was. Unfortunately, he witnessed both world wars and fought in World War I. He lived through terrible times.
Also, thanks for your kind words of support regarding Iris Starmoss.
Hi, Laurie – That Gatsby quote is absolutely perfect here.
I just finished reading Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945). To me, it portrays the current U.S. administration with unsettling foresight. My hope is that, for the everyday people, the endings are very, very different.
Fingers, toes, and every thing else crossed that endings are very different.
yes, please!
Sadly, Laurie, I keep wondering whether we are in this mess, in part, because Bidon’s days were so boring.
Could be, but how I long for them.
Both of your quotes: so appropos. Thanks for sharing your pick of the news of the week and your thoughts.
Thanks, Lorna. Really wish I didn’t feel compelled to write about his. How I long for the old boring days of Joe Biden.
Yes, boring was great! And such a relief. When he brought 30% of children out of poverty (temporarily, unfortunately) my old social work heart leapt for joy.
I feel so sorry for all Americans !!! and for the rest of the world, as the Trump thinks he can choose whatever country he wants to have, like Canada and Greenland !!! He really thinks he is God himself.
It is awful, just awful. As a whole, Americans hold Canadians in high regard, and it pains us to see them treated this way.
Beautiful quote from Gandalf — and a good reminder of duty.
Yes, for all the magic and elves, The Lord of the Rings is a serious series.
Perfect quote to end on. That describes it well. The question that comes up for me is the reason they are using Signal instead of the secure lines the government already has set up. Seems to me they’re trying to avoid leaving a record of anything (because everything they do is supposed to leave a record). They can’t revamp history if there is a record in place. Scary times. Thank you for the quote from Gandalf in TLOTR, too. Much appreciated.
An excellent recap, Laurie. One reason to use the SignalChat app is that they can do all kinds of things without an official record (which is also against the law). What are they doing that they don’t want anyone to know about? Why not be on the up and up? They’re sneaking around off the record to hide from accountability.
Two other things that I think are worth noting:
Many thanks! A disgusting crew, that’s for sure. To my way of thinking, glee is always an inappropriate response to death.
And the news only gets worse….
Alas.
I can’t wait for this madness to end!
It’s going to be a long four years.
And more, if he has his way.
Another great post on what’s becoming a long list of I can’t believe that happened! Congratulations on starting a new book and I love my subscriptions to The Atlantic and The New Yorker.