Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

In that surreal new MAGA world, I suspect the only person who will face real consequences will be the Atlantic journalist Jeff Goldberg.

Regarding the deletion of records - if this conversation had been done on a Pentagon secure network, which I expect exists, then the records retention laws apply.

Trump's lackeys used Signal, because this administration hates the records law - secrecy is their thing, Trump hates anyone keeping records on his activity. So, no records kept of this war planning activity. Pretty damned nasty imo.

Trump could get up of a morning and do four impeachable things before lunch, and maybe this day has occurred, but it looks like he has the lowest likelihood of impeachment of any US president in history since the Republican party has pretty much said that their loyalty is to him, not the US constitution. They'd never vote it through.

This administration is looking to last not for four years but for perpetuity. It won't be brought down by procedure but by public revolt. It's hard for me to see the latter happening given how much the US public seem prepared to put up with. What would be the point that the frog jumps out of the pot?

I'm sure someone said the same thing about 8 years ago, and some how they survived the first term. Although arguably Covid helped a bit.

Reality is when you put people into powerful positions based pretty much on their subservience and obedience to the boss rather then based on their experience and or competence to do the job then this kind of monumental screw up is going to happen and given that this regime is filled with extremists and sycophants like the fox news, alcoholic sexual predator then I think we are going to see a fair few more screw ups like this in the coming months.

Anytime he is faced with a question he can’t answer or who shows up his lies he just discredits the news channel or reporter by saying they are a failing company or has never heard of them.

Unbelievable.

Heh my own employer even has its own in-house chat, voice, video application for desktop and mobile

It’s mad to think we have more secure in house capabilities than US government/ military

I mean its worse than that. The US government, and I'm not an expert here, almost certainly has the most sophisticated encrypted areas/channels(SCIF), security protocols and technologies available.

But the morons at the top of the chain, the ones who should be espousing and enforcing these protocols are actively flouting them. And then lying or deflecting to distract people from the fact that noone will be held responsible.

And they're putting everyone who relies on western intelligence at risk while they're at it.

Y

Yes I'm aware how impeachment works and how unlikely it us but my point is that if a president is removed from power for any reason he's normally replaced by the VP but this person is also malignant and a threat to US democracy.

So does the US constitution have a tool to remove both?

I think next year's mid terms will be very important with both house may swing Democrat and make Trump a lame duck and vulnerable.

There must be another way to remove an administration rather than pubic revolt or a military coup?

Prefer our parliamentary system where a government can be brought down by a parliamentary vote and new election called.

Nevwrmind impeachment, imprisonment is where this should be going.

I'm pretty familiar with classification levels. The journalist demonstrating more consideration and care than the officials involved with sensitive information precludes us from knowing the exact details. I would wager that if the information alluded to by Goldberg is correct, it would meet the level of TS. Anything that touches electronic collection systems is almost always at the TS level, and this sort of coordinated operation would absolutely involve collection and EW assets. Sequencing, assets involved, locations of forces. That's some of the most critical of information, subordinate only to technical or intelligence assets information.

Whether precise details of the attack would rise to that level would depend. Regardless, even transmitting SIPR level information would be illegal, and given it's related to an active operation, not one that can be dismissed as a minor IO violation. You or I would be likely be prosecuted and jailed for such actions

This is a really big problem. Giving top secret info to the likes of Trump, Vance and Hegseth and other trump officials could be very dangerous. It could have serious consequences especially for Ukraine. Only a fool or a person with bad intentions would want to share some of their most sensitive security information with these people.

We saw Vance and Hegseth at that security conference in Germany, just weeks ago. They dislike European democracy. They show that they are more complimentary towards and comfortable with right wing neo Nazis than to their allies.

Europe also need to keep the Americans onside to aid Ukraine's and Europes goal of survival against Russia. It's a tight line they are walking. Europe has let itself down by outsourcing our security to America for decades but that's another whole day's work.

The old and overused saying " We are where we are ", is very apt here.

I'm sure Europe and there allies need to have a lot of discussions but even having these discussions would be very difficult to organise. Who should be privy to these discussions? Who can we trust?

Europe and our allies have got themselves into a very dangerous place and time. We now need some brave leaders and a willingness to spend loads of money on defence and preparation for a possible war which hopefully doesn't arrive.

The problem with democracies is we the people, like our government to spend our taxes on the good stuff which does not encourage bravery from our leaders.

I definitely agree that many of Trump people are clowns but it would be a mistake to take these clowns lightly. These people could cause a lot of deaths especially Ukrainians and also the alliance of the willing who may end up in Ukraine in the near to mid future.