Trump dismisses group chat security leak as a ’glitch’
US President Donald Trump has commented on the group chat security leak, dismissing it as a leak to NBC News.
Trump, told NBC News in a phone call that it was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one”, adding his national security advisor Michael Waltz had “learned a lesson”.
It is unlikely this will placate critics of the president who see this leak as a serious breach of national security.
Key events
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, delivered the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment, listing China’s military, Mexico’s drug trade and Russia’s nuclear weapons among some of the most alarming threats to the country’s national security.
Before FBI director Kash Patel began his remarks, a protester yelled “Stop funding Israel!”
The committee’s Republican chair, Tom Cotton, called the protester a “lunatic”.
Security blunder shows ‘sloppy, careless, incompetent’ handling of classified information, says top Democrat
Chris Stein
Democratic senator Mark Warner went on to describe the leaking of the Yemen war plans in a Signal group chat as part of a pattern of actions taken by the second Trump administration that weakens US national security.
“I can just say this. If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired, as I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that this is not a one-off or a first-time error,” said Warner, the Senate intelligence committee’s vice-chairman.
He outlined a litany of grievances against the Trump administration, from its cancellation of foreign aid to its firing of probationary federal employees.
“No, the Signal fiasco is not a one-off. It is, unfortunately, a pattern we’re seeing too often repeated. I fear that we feel the erosion of trust, from our workplace, from our companies, and from our allies and partners, [which] can’t be put back in the bottle overnight. Make no mistake, these actions make America less safe,” he said.
The committee’s Republican chair, Tom Cotton, largely confined his opening remarks to warning of the threats posed from traditional enemies such as Iran and China, while implying that the intelligence community had lost its focus under Joe Biden.
“Given these threats, we have to ask, are our intelligence agencies well postured against these threats? I’m afraid the answer is no, at least not yet. As the world became more dangerous in recent years, our intelligence agencies got more politicized, more bureaucratic, and more focused on promulgating opinions rather than gathering facts. As a result of these misplaced priorities, we’ve been caught off guard and left in the dark too often,” Cotton said.
Chris Stein
News that the Atlantic’s top editor was added to a group chat where US national security officials discussed their plans to bomb Yemen is looming over the Senate intelligence committee’s annual hearing into global threats facing the United States.
Among the guests at the hearing are two reported members of the group chat, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director. As the hearing began, Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the committee, condemned the leak.
“Yesterday, we stunningly learned that senior members of this administration, and according to reports, two of our witnesses here today, were members of a group chat that discussed highly sensitive, likely classified information that supposedly even included weapons packages, targets and timing, and included the name of an active CIA agent,” Warner said.
“Putting aside for a moment that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system, it’s also just mind-boggling to me, all these senior folks were on this line, and nobody bothered to even check security hygiene 101.”
Warner called Monday’s leak “one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information”. He also called it a “pattern of an amazing cavalier attitude towards classified information”.
“The erosion of trust from our workplace, from our companies, and from our allies and partners can’t be put back in the bottle overnight,” he added.
Democratic senate intelligence chair condemns reckless use of Signal to discuss sensitive information
Democratic senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, began his remarks by condemning the reckless use of a messaging app to discuss a sensitive military strike in Yemen.
“Putting aside for a moment that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system,” he said, “it’s also just mind-boggling to me that all these senior folks were on this line and nobody bothered to even check security hygiene 101. Who are all the names? Who are they? Well, it apparently included a journalist.”
Gabbard and Patel at Senate intelligence committee after Signal blunder
The Senate intelligence committee has started its “World Wide Threats” hearing.
The hearing comes a day after the controversial leak of deliberations by JD Vance and other top-level Trump administration officials over a strike against the Houthis in Yemen via a messaging app.
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, director of the FBI, are appearing before the panel.
Trump dismisses group chat security leak as a ’glitch’
US President Donald Trump has commented on the group chat security leak, dismissing it as a leak to NBC News.
Trump, told NBC News in a phone call that it was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one”, adding his national security advisor Michael Waltz had “learned a lesson”.
It is unlikely this will placate critics of the president who see this leak as a serious breach of national security.
Yesterday, Donald Trump said he was unaware of the alleged US data breach, but he did share a joke his close ally Elon Musk made on X in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The UK’s deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has reacted to the alleged US data breach.
Rayner told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One that she “doesn’t have much more to add” in response to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly accusing Europe of “free-loading” off the US.
Rayner said, “I don’t recognise that there is a challenge between the UK and US relations, they are as strong as they’ve always been.”
Rayner added that “people say things in private messaging” and insisted it was “for the vice-president to decide and to clarify what he means by those conversations”.
My colleague Peter Beaumont has noted five things US adversaries could learn from today’s White House leaks.
“Friendly and hostile governments alike will also have learned that what Vance, Hegseth and others say in public – in disparaging Europe, for example – they say in private, too.
“Any notion that the Trump administration’s bark is worse than its bite should be thoroughly disabused by the contempt expressed by Vance for Europe and by the transactional nature of the conversation.”
Read more here …
No 10 rejects claims Britain is a ‘freeloading’ country after White House leaked messages
Andrew Sparrow
Downing Street has rejected suggestions that Britain is a “freeloading” country that expects the US to meet its defence needs.
At the lobby briefing this morning, prime minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson spoke at length about the contribution the UK makes to joint military operations with the Americans, following the extraordinary leak of messages showing the contempt President Trump’s most senior allies have for Europe’s record on defence.
But the spokesperson also refused to directly criticise the two figures who were most critical, JD Vance, the vice-president, and Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary.
At the lobby briefing this morning, asked if Britain was a pathetic freeloader, the PM’s spokesperson replied:
You can see, from the way in which the UK has worked closely with the US, supplying regional security and defence, our commitment to working with the US on matters of regional security.
You’ll know the UK provided air-to-air refuelling support for recent strikes against Houthi key rebel targets [the raid discussed in the messages inadvertently shared with Godlberg].
We also continue to support the US-led coalition against Daesh with routine combat air patrol over Iraq and Syria.
And we’ll continue to work with the US and other allies to ensure stability and security in the Middle East.
Asked again if Britons were freeloaders, the spokesperson repeated the point about the UK working with the US closely in the Middle East.
