Signalgate

alternative SignalGate

1. UScolloquialgovernmentA security incident around the United States government discussing classified information on unsecured devices via the messaging app Signal, publicized due to the chief editor of a news magazine having been added by the National Security Advisor on the 13th of March 2025 to a group planning military strikes against the Houthis.

   Jimmy Kimmel on Republicans’ reaction to Signalgate: ‘How many times do you have to repeat a lie before it becomes true? I guess we’re going to find out.’

   2025 March 27, Jimmy Kimmel, quotee, “Jimmy Kimmel on Signalgate: ‘This operation was about as secretive as a Fortnite Twitch stream’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   As a story, Signalgate is more than just a serious breach of national security. It’s colorful, it’s visual, it’s easy to understand and it raises the most dangerous charge of all for any government — one of rank incompetence.

   2025 March 25, Jack Blanchard, “Playbook: Signalgate”, in Politico

   In SCIFs, the secure rooms where Washington officials conduct their most sensitive conversations, phones aren’t even allowed in the door. The people at the center of Signalgate — the national security adviser, Michael Waltz; the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth; the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; to name a few — all know this.

   2025 March 27, Noah Shachtman, “America Can’t Keep a Secret”, in The New York Times, page A22

1. Alternative letter-case form of Signalgate.

   All of which is to say, SignalGate raises plenty of security, privacy, and legal issues.

   2025 March 26, Andy Greenberg, Lily Hay Newman, “SignalGate Isn’t About Signal”, in WIRED