Almost all those who are not completely absorbed into the Trump/MAGA cult have been shocked at the amazing carelessness/light mindedness at best, and utter stupidity at worst, of the Signal, chat group of the security and intelligence principles of the Trump administration, to which the reporter for the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added by mistake – a mistake which nobody else noticed. Observers should not have been shocked. The stupidity and light mindedness flow directly from their very view of and method of operating in the world. To fully understand it, let’s backtrack a minute to just a few days before this Signal chat was revealed, back to March 22 when one of these principles, Trump‘s international envoy Steve Witkoff was interviewed by Tucker Carlson. That interview reveals a lot.

Witkoff explains his attitude towards Trump. he told Carlson, “I learned the business from him (Trump)…. I wanted to be him….. He had this swashbuckling style. I used to see him come in, and I used to say, God, I want to be him….. he was like the Michael Jordan to me of the real estate industry”

These comments are not purely for public consumption. They are not just simply sucking up to Trump. Yes they are that to a degree, but studies show that if you say something often enough, you come to believe it yourself. So there is every reason to think that the nonsense Witkoff spewed actually represents his thinking. With that in mind, let’s look at some of what Witkoff said:

He, and Trump speaking through his mouth, see the region as simply a “investment opportunity”. Here’s what he said: “the Gulf Coast could be one of the most undervalued opportunities if we get peace and stability throughout the region. If we solve Iran and you can finance in that market. These Israelis are brilliant from a technological standpoint. They’ve got a huge technological base there. Yes, they’re in AI, robotics, Blockchain. That’s where the UAE is today. That’s where Saudi Arabia is today. That’s where Qatar is today. Can you imagine all these countries working collaboratively and creating that type of market? It could be much bigger than Europe. Europe is dysfunctional today. Imagine if they became functional and everybody’s a business guy there. It could be amazing.”

As for the 100+ years-long, ethnic nationalist crisis created by Zionism, Witkoff dismisses that as potentially something of the past. He says: “you have a young leadership in MBS, you have a relatively young leadership in the UAE, you have a relatively young leadership, new leadership in Qatar. People who don’t have the old sensibilities, people who want to have, want to do business.” so it’s profits, and profits alone, that can be the sole guiding light for the entire region. And Witkoff might be right, in fact he is right, that these national leaderships in the Arab world really don’t give a damn about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. The Arab masses don’t exist in the Witkoff/Trump world. But what Witkoff dismisses without even a thought is the fact that tens of millions of Arab people do give a damn, and they will not tolerate their governments totally and blatantly capitulating to Israel and the United States.

Witkoff’s meeting with Putin
Then Witkoff discusses his meeting with Putin. And once again, he channels the stupidity, the simple mindedness of his hero Trump, who falls for every flatterer that comes his way. Witkoff says about Putin: “I liked him….. I thought he was straight up with me….. I think it was enormously gracious for him to accept me…. (Putin) told me a story about how when the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president, not because he was the president of the United States, or could become the president of the United States, but because he had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend. I mean, can you imagine sitting there and listening to these kinds of conversations?…. and I came home and delivered that message to our president and delivered the painting, and he was clearly touched by it. So this is the kind of connection that we’ve been able to reestablish.” To which the equally stupid Tucker Carlson, equally the stupid sycophant, replies: “it’s like a marriage.”

In other words, these people have completely absorbed and are channeling Trump’s view that personal relations, rather than the balance of forces, is what determines geopolitics. That is why they are so susceptible to the flattery of people like Putin. But it is more than just susceptibility to flattery; Trump is actually an ally of Putin, an ally in which Putin is the dominant one, and Trump and his mouthpiece, Witkoff, accept everything Putin says without question. For instance, Witkoff says “there’s Kursk, where Ukrainian troops are surrounded. Fact.“ No, actually it is not a fact. The Ukrainian troops are not surrounded.

Then Witkoff goes on to show the true real estate dealers’ mentality, in which both sides of a real estate deal can make a profit – a profit that is drawn from the general public. He says “we want to see Ukraine come out of this OK. I want to see Russia come out of it OK…. satisfied, feeling that we came out of this thing OK with a deal that everybody can live with.” Whether the Ukrainian people can “live with” the deal is irrelevant other than whether Zelensky can potentially sell it to them.

Then Witkoff goes on to demonstrate his ignorance of the actual situation of Ukraine, in that he cannot remember the names of the regions of Lugansk and Donetsk. All he can remember, is Donbass and Crimea. Once again that is channeling Putin, who sees all of those two regions as being part of Russia. Witkoff comments: “they are Russian speaking. There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule. [In fact, the referendums to which Witkoff refers were about as free as are elections under Putin or Maduro in Venezuela, and the previous genuinely free referendum, held in 1991, showed that the majority and all of those regions preferred to be part of an independent Ukraine. But why let facts interfere with Putin‘s narrative?] I think that’s the key issue in the conflict. So that’s the first thing that when that gets settled… and Russia controls that.” Tucker, Carlson, comments, “in fact, some of those territories are now, from the Russian perspective, part of Russia, correct?” And Witcoff replies, “the question is will they be, will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories, question will Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict. Absolutely.”

Wall St. Journal editorial board comments
A couple of days later, on March 24, the Wall Street Journal editorial board commented on this interview. They did not mince their words. “Mr. Witkoff presented one specious Russian talking point after another,” they wrote. “The biggest howler during a long podcast with Tucker Carlson – we’ve struggled to narrow down the list – is Mr. Witkoff’s claim that Mr. Putin ‘100%’ doesn’t want to overrun Europe….. does Mr. Witkoff know anything about Russian or Mr. Putin‘s history?” They then suggest that Witcoff/Trump are “following in Neville Chamberlain’s (footsteps).” Chamberlain, of course, was the British Prime Minister, who made concessions to Hitler, and came home bragging that there will be “peace in our time”. These concessions only opened the door to Hitler’s invading other countries.

Notice here the blindness, not only by Trump and Witkoff, but also by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, to the fate of the Ukrainian people themselves. For them, the Ukrainian people don’t matter. The difference is that the Wall Street Journal editorial board is looking at it through the lens of the interests of the US capitalist class as they see it, while Witkoff and Trump are viewing the matter through the lens of what benefits Trump and by extension his personal entourage. That is what explains the extreme superficiality, the delusional, thinking, the light mindedness of Trump and those around him.

Full Signal Chat
Now let us go from there to Steve Goldberg‘s full report on the Signal group chat. He writes: “at 1:48 PM, waltz sent the following text containing real time in intelligence about conditions at an attack site, apparently in Sanaa: “VP. Building collapse. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job.”

At 2 PM, Waltz responded: “typing too fast. The first target-their top missile guy we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now Collapsed .“ Vance responded a minute later: “excellent.“ 35 minutes after that, Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote, “a good start,” which waltz followed with a text containing a 👊 an 🇺🇸, and a 🔥. The Houthie-run Yemeni health ministry reported that at least 53 people were killed in the strikes, a number that has not been independently verified.”

In other words, at least one building collapse, killing who knows how many people, including children. These deaths were “a good start”.

The psychopaths in their own words and emojis.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a psychopath as “a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality, marked by a lack of remorse for one’s actions, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies.” As far as simple, “criminality“ there is the violation of U.S. laws regarding the handling of classified material. But that is only a minor detail compared to the major issue – the complete absence of empathy towards others or remorse for one’s actions. And if you have no remorse for killing who knows how many children, you most certainly won’t have remorse for the utter carelessness displayed in the Signal chat, as seen in these clippings of the testimony of a few of these psychopaths:

The only difference between these Trump sycophants and the Wall Street Journal editorial board (and those who that editorial board represents) is that the latter has something of a view of geopolitics, while the former express the shortsighted and narrow point of view of the self interest of their cult, leader, Donald Trump. As the saying goes, “they may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but at least they are a tool”- a tool of Vladimir Putin. Both are dangerous and violent psychopaths.