President Trump has long been brave about handling classified material at best.
During his first term, he took a photo of satellite images of Iranian launch sites that were included in his Daily Intelligence Brief and posted them on social media.
At a meeting in the oval office, Trump shared tips with the Russian Foreign Minister from the Israeli Intelligence Agency about the terrorist conspiracy, and then asked the Intelligence Agency to exonerate him on television.
And when Trump resigned, he stacked confidential documents in the bathroom at his Mar Lago resort in Florida that the Justice Department said had been improperly taken by the White House.
Now, Trump's attitudes and actions come under new scrutiny as national security advisers, the Secretary of Defense and several cabinet members discuss details of the looming military strike that many experts have been categorized in the face of questions about the use of signals, a commercial messaging app.
The conversation is explained in an article on Monday, when the Atlantic Editor-in-Chief was accidentally added to the group chat.
By Wednesday afternoon, Trump had admitted that he “don't know” whether the information disclosed was classified. Still, he seemed far more concerned about how the editors were added to the chat than whether the Americans were in danger.
And the former official says he goes to the government, which has been tricked by his key aides by the president, its rules and protections. The former official spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation from the White House and its allies.
The lines from Trump administration officials, including the Director of National Intelligence, were that none of the classifieds were shared.
This response was filled with distrust among the Democrats. Democrats noted that the chat included Times, where pilots take off to carry out air strikes.
“The casualness he dealt with information clearly became this new team culture,” said Sue Gordon, the first Trump administration's top intelligence officer. “I think it captivates the breathtaking lack of understanding of the reality of the risks posed by our highly capable enemies and competitors who promote profits at the expense of ours.”
According to military experts, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses appears to have re-entered information from the classified documents and put the classified messages from the US Central Command into a signal group for senior officials.
In other words, in the world of intelligence, it's a big error.
All intelligence agents and military personnel are taught to never retype it on “high side” or secrets, computers, and “low side” computers connected to the internet.
According to previous officials, taking shortcuts can cost people security clearance and work.
But the guidelines are everything the Trump administration has to resentment, and are part of a slow, laborious, bureaucratic process.
Overall, Trump chose people for the new administration, who has no decades of experience in government, or who has no knowledge of the rules and why it exists, but shares his desire to remake it.
Trump places people on national security teams that are good on television and social media that are open to the administration.
As a result, many administrators have no deep understanding of how or why information is classified. And one former official said that inexperienced people made mistakes, even if they were smart.
Republicans have frequently criticized former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s handling of confidential materials after resigning from vice president in 2017. Unlike Trump, however, Biden returned confidential documents and assisted in the investigation.
Congressional Democrats focus on Hegseth's message in the signal chat that revealed the launch times for various attacks on Yemen's Houthi militia targets.
However, some former staff say that even policy debates in chat led by Vice President JD Vance have been categorized. Vance spoke openly about whether US European allies could protect their trade routes from Hooty attacks in the Red Sea.
When others in the chat argued in support of the strike, Vance said he would support them, but added, “I hate saving Europe again.”
It's a kind of deliberation that the US government might want to keep secrets, and the enemy would want access.
“If there is anything to be the best secret, it is the view of a senior national leader on foreign governments, and the deliberations and grounds around it,” said Glenn Garstell, former general advisor to the National Security Agency. “That's the number one rule for classification books.”
Most of the criticism of Trump and his national security team came from Democrats at Capitol Hill. But Senate Republicans are questioning. One of them, Mississippi's Roger Wicker, chaired the Senate's Armed Services Committee, expressed concern and asked representative Pentagon inspectors to investigate.
“In the case of truth, this report raises questions about the use of unclassified networks, discusses sensitive and classified information, as well as shares such information with people who do not have adequate clearance and do not need to know.
Beyond Capitol Hill, there are some indications that questions about the administration's loose attitudes towards secrets have permeated the wider American conversation.
Dave Portnoy, founder and owner of Barstool Sports and Trump administration supporter, posted what he called “political rants” on social media on Wednesday. The 6-minute video has millions of views.
In the video, Portnoy repeatedly says he hates the Atlantic, which he considers to be hostile to the Trump administration. However, he also said that information placed in the messaging group should not be shared there and the issue should be taken seriously.
“It's very sensitive and very categorized,” Portnoy said. “And if this information somehow came out on Houthis, and I think I'll move at the speed of light in situations like this – many American soldiers could have died, in danger.
Portnoy also had problems with what he characterized as a disregard for Trump's leak.
“This is not correct,” Portnoy said. “In this new administration, we want to take accountability. Someone has to get off.”
