Members of US President Donald Trump's administration insisted during a hearing before a House of Representatives committee last night that there was nothing wrong with their use of the messaging app “Signal“ to discuss US military plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen, the newspaper writes. “New York Times“.
Democrats, who are trying to find a way to oppose the president in the Republican-controlled executive branch, did not fail to take advantage of one of the most notable blunders that Trump administration officials have made since he took office, the publication points out.
Democratic committee members said that such chats are vulnerable to interception by an adversary and that officials could have endangered American pilots carrying out the strikes if the conversation had been passed on to the Houthis, the newspaper notes.
The Trump administration is working at a rapid pace in its efforts to implement many of its initiatives and has already made several mistakes with potentially serious consequences, the newspaper writes. “Washington Post“.
Many of these mistakes stem from hasty and often inept efforts to cut government spending and programs, the newspaper points out.
Such episodes certainly existed during Trump's first term, but the first two months of his second term have brought a series of apparently unprovoked errors - blunders that at first glance could have been avoided with a greater emphasis on traditional political processes, the American capital's publication comments.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that the Trump administration had made a “big mistake” with the leak of information about US military plans to strike Houthi targets, the British newspaper writes. “Telegraph“.
This is a significant admission from a senior US official at a time when the rest of the administration is presenting a united front, downplaying the seriousness of what happened, the publication points out.
Publicly, Trump has said he has confidence in his national security team and downplayed the leak, but anonymous members of his administration have called for the resignation of Mike Walz - the White House national security adviser, who took “full responsibility” about what happened, writes „Telegraph“.
The question that now needs to be answered is why a group of senior officials, including a number who served in the US armed forces and are familiar with the procedures for handling such information - including the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Walz, Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett - agreed to join a conversation on such an unsecured platform, writes the „Guardian“.
A number of commentators suspect that this group, as well as other senior officials in the Trump administration, used applications such as „Signal“ to avoid surveillance of their communications, even though such practices potentially violate federal record retention laws, the newspaper notes.