Donald Trump’s leaked struggle chat reveals his ‘unreliable’ workforce act like ‘children in playground’
Body language expert Judi James told The Mirror of the Trump administration texts: ‘Group chat messaging like this reduces communication down to its most basic and unreliable level.’
Leak text chats discussing war plans from Donald Trump’s team prove they are “unreliable” and act like “kids in a playground”, a body language expert has told The Mirror. The unforced blunder exposed plans to strike Houthi rebel targets in Yemen all while a journalist was added to the group of senior White House officials.
The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to Mr Trump’s national security team on Signal, where the highly-classified information was shared. Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Mike Waltz were among those in the chat.
In the messages, Mr Vance questioned whether the US should strike targets as a limited amount of American trade goes through the Suez Canal. He also hit out against European nations.
“If you think we should do it let’s go,” Mr Vance said. “I just hate bailing Europe out again.” The account associated with Hegseth replied: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.
“But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS (President of the United States) directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.”
The chat also exposed the time and locations of where the US would strike the Houthi targets. But according to body language expert Judi James, a major takeaway was the juvenile approach the senior officials took to dealing with military affairs.
She told The Mirror: “Group chat messaging like this reduces communication down to its most basic and unreliable level. Trading thoughts, feelings, commands and ideas using words alone is hazardous as there is no nuance from tone or non-verbal signalling to flesh out the genuine meaning. Human communication is a subtle, complex process and messaging often plays it down to the level of a school playground chat.”
According to Mr Goldberg, emojis were shared following the air strike. Among those include a fist, an American flag and fire. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff responded with five emojis which included two hands praying, a flexed bicep and two American flags.
Mr Hegseth yesterday denied having texted war plans to the journalist before hitting out at Mr Goldberg. Speaking to reporters in Hawaii, he said: “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
Mr Goldberg has strongly rebutted claims made by the Defense Secretary. Multiple officials in the US government confirmed the veracity of the messages obtained by Mr Goldberg.
