America has made its fair share of mistakes in its international relations in the post-World War II era—but never has an administration made a choice as bold as the Trump administration’s decision to make omnishambolic, head-up-our-butts dangerous and pernicious clusterf---ery the centerpiece of its foreign policy agenda.
The most recent example of this commitment to disastrous policies from incompetent leaders engaged in defective processes is, of course, the revelations included in The Atlantic’s blockbuster story detailing how the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was somehow added to a group text thread in which the administration’s leadership were sharing top-secret war plans. In an even more shocking twist, the White House actually acknowledged that what he wrote was true.
The result is pandemonium in the national security community, not just in D.C. but in capitals around the world. According to Politico, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, once seen as the strongest member of Trump’s natsec team, could lose his job over this incident. (Waltz, according to Goldberg, was the person who invited him to join the chat.)
The stupidity and recklessness that had to be behind coordinating highest-level policy on a platform like Signal (which is not approved for sensitive or classified government communications) and, apparently, on personal cellphones, reaches world record levels.
It is easy to make fun of, but is, of course, no laughing matter. As one former high-ranking top military official said to me: “Hire clowns, expect a circus. And frankly, I’ve never seen a screwup on this level before. In normal times, they all should go.”
This incident is appalling in its own right—but it hardly is the administration’s biggest foreign policy blunder. Rather, it is emblematic of a dangerous pattern. Indeed, if doing damage to America’s national security interests is not the primary goal of the Trump team (and I’m not sure it’s not), it is certainly a clear consequence of many of their actions.
In just the past two months, we have seen them systematically undermine virtually every major U.S. foreign policy goal stretching back decades. We have launched trade wars and threatened the stability of an international trading system of which we were the primary architect and champion. We have gone further, threatening to invade and illegally annex the territory of allies like Canada and Denmark and of friends like Panama. We have turned our back on another friend, Ukraine, in its courageous fight to defend itself from Russian aggression.
Top administration officials have parroted Russian propaganda—as in Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff’s recent televised statement that the people of eastern Ukraine had expressed a desire to be part of Russia. The president himself has set the tone for such outrageous lies by suggesting Ukraine was at fault for Russia’s invasion, and with his public humiliation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a disastrous Oval Office meeting.
Indeed, perhaps the most egregious foreign policy disaster among all those that have taken place under Trump’s malignant, myopic leadership is that the United States has abandoned the North Atlantic alliance it helped create—along with it, the championing of democracy and the rule of law—and, instead, has thrown in with Russia and new axis powers who seek to promote ethno-nationalist, anti-democratic despotism.
In addition, the Trump administration has made a series of decisions to weaken our defenses against our rivals—by shutting down key programs across the government and, essentially, America’s entire foreign aid apparatus, a rollback that will not only lead to the death of millions worldwide but one that will produce hostility against the U.S.
The result of these moves is the most shocking international relations turnabout in our history. (And let’s not get into the dangers associated with firing the people in charge of assuring the security of our weapons of mass destruction, or those who play a critical role in defending us against both epidemics and biowarfare.)
Which is to say that screwing up by inviting a reporter into a not-so-private—and certainly not secure—chat, on which national secrets were shared, is very bad. And the story has already sent shockwaves among our very closest allies, with whom we have shared intelligence for decades.
That shared intelligence is an absolutely critical foundation for our national security. And make no mistake about it, members of the “Five Eyes” intel-sharing community— the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand—were already looking askance at continued cooperation with the U.S.
“I’m sure our friends are already holding back intel,” one intel community veteran who has spent most of his career overseas said to me. “This is only going to result in further damage and promote greater distrust.”
Will our allies publicly announce they are reducing this cooperation? That’s not how this world usually works. But the practitioners are specialists in the art of the leak, and my contact said he would not be surprised if they choose to make their fears and anger known.
Personally, I hope they do. Even in light of Trump and his team’s attempts to downplay the gravity of this debacle, it will be harder for the public to ignore if the costs of this reckless incompetence if they could see a little more clearly the damage being done.
Unfortunately, what we will not be able to fully appreciate is how long it will take the U.S., once hailed as the leader of the free world, to recover the trust it has so egregiously squandered during just the past two months.
Perspective remains critically important, yes, but we must not get too caught up in the story of the day. Rather, let’s be clear: This egregious national security breach, involving virtually every senior natsec official in the Trump administration, is deeply shocking and profoundly stupid. But it is probably only the twentysomething-worst foreign policy move they’ve made so far.
