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Barbarians at Signalgate

As the Trump group chat debacle stretches into its third day, the White House is ostensibly standing by its men, and Republicans are standing by the administration. In private, of course, some national security–minded Republicans are worried, aggrieved, disappointed, and vexed.

Tulsi Gabbard John Ratcliffe
During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “worldwide threats” on Tuesday, Republicans didn’t broach the Signal chat with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
March 26, 2025

As with pretty much everything in Trump 2.0, most Republicans are publicly standing by the administration (or at least staying silent) over its latest scandal—you know, the one where the president’s top national security team swapped sensitive and possibly classified information about upcoming military operations over a Signal group chat in which they accidentally included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. But while most are following Trump’s standard deny-dismiss-excuse-deflect playbook, a faction of national security–type Hill Republicans are privately expressing discomfort with the episode.