Digital Politics Quick Hits: March 30, 2025
Only the finest stories need apply
Follow Epolitics on Substack, Bluesky, Threads, or Twitter/X. This post was also published on Epolitics.com
Hi folks, thanks again for your patience. As I mentioned, I’m in Texas helping my mom for a while, and she’s had some health setbacks in the past two weeks. More Epolitics is brewing, but for today, enjoy the finest reads related to digital politics (however marginally) I’ve encountered recently.
Digital Politics Quick Hits: March 30, 2025
You may have heard about this one by now, but let’s go to the original source: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans, and the particularly damning follow-up [The Atlantic]
How the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg made noise with a Signal scoop. “The Trump administration tried to paint the veteran journalist as a liar, so he felt compelled to prove them wrong — and he had the receipts.” For Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense for the United States of America, an “I just ambushed you with a cup of coffee” moment [WaPo]
Signal chat flouted rules on classified intel, say former defense officials [WaPo]
The Group Chat Saga Exposes a Stunning Hypocrisy, and The Double Standard at the Center of the Signal Debacle. “As senior officials deny wrongdoing, rank-and-file national-security personnel worry about the dangers if no one is held accountable.” [NYT, Atlantic]
Also not happy? U.S. military pilots [NYT]
The gift of a lifetime for foreign intelligence agencies in countries up and down the scale [NYT]
The Group Chat Is a Place to Trade Jokes or Attack Yemen. “In 2025, we once again encounter the American empire in all its majesty: a bunch of Fox News personalities giving themselves text neck — and giving one another emoji props — as they repeat talking points in a group text in front of a bunch of people they secretly hate.” [NYMag]
In a similar vein: “These are the texts of middle-management doofuses elevated, unexpectedly, to the executive suite. They are mortifyingly self-important about their new status. They cannot stop prancing around in their new suits, bragging about their new toys. Look at how important they are!” [Slate]
Trump Officials in Signal Fiasco Attended Secret Mar-a-Lago Dinner Shortly After Celebrating Bombing [Wired]
Trump’s shocking military plan leak epitomizes a sloppy operation. “The administration inadvertently shared plans for strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels ahead of time with a prominent journalist. It’s of a piece with all that came before it.” [WaPo]
Trump’s Most Outrageous Scandal Yet Is Actually Going Viral [Message Box]
Signal For Secure Comms: Convenience Over Security Without The Record-Keeping [The War Zone]
Similar vein: Why government workers and military planners all love Signal now [WaPo]
Here comes the judge: Senior Trump officials ordered to preserve Signal group chat [BBC]
But wait, there’s more! “Donald Trump’s most important security advisers used Signal to discuss an imminent military strike. Now, reporting by Der Spiegel has found that the contact data of some of those officials, including mobile phone numbers, is freely accessible on the internet.” [Der Spiegel]
Mike Waltz Left His Venmo Friends List Public. But wait, there’s even more more: Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public [Wired]
Influencer Paid by Russia Added to White House Press Pool [Daily Beast]
Doing it for the ‘gram: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posed in front of El Salvador prisoners wearing $50k watch [USA Today]
Musk’s money is buying digital ads, field canvassing and text messages in Wisconsin, including some fraudulent Facebook ads [WaPo, Journal-Sentinel]
#RecessionIndicator: Young Americans are losing confidence in the economy — and it shows online [CNBC]
Even Girl Scout Cookies Aren’t Safe — From Disinformation. Plus, Dropkick Murphys [News Guard]
Bernie Sanders Is Tapping Into a Deep Vein of Anger in America [NYT]
Inside DOGE’s Plan to Invade the Treasury—and Throttle USAID. “Court filings show that from the earliest days of the second Trump administration, Elon Musk’s DOGE had a plan to infiltrate US Treasury payment systems—and turn them against USAID.” [Wired]
Trump administration cuts national database tracking domestic terrorism. Also covered hate crimes and school shootings, lost “in a sweeping round of cuts to violence prevention projects” [WaPo]
Trump shifts cyberattack readiness to state and local governments in wake of info-sharing cuts [CSO]
Air Force purges photos, websites on pioneering female pilots [Military Times]
Anger, then relief after Pentagon restores Navajo code talker webpages [WaPo]
Trump’s assault on elites encompasses almost every aspect of American life. C.f. Trump is taking revenge on the American people [CNN, NYT]
Zuckerberg’s Meta considered sharing user data with China, whistleblower alleges. “One of the top priorities for President Trump is the West winning this critical [AI] race and yet for many years Meta has been working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party, briefing them on the latest technological developments and lying about it” [WaPo]
Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down. But at least they’re not cutting off phone service — yet [WaPo]
DOGE Staffer ‘Big Balls’ Provided Tech Support to Cybercrime Ring, Records Show. Only the best! [US News]
MAGA Influencers May Have Been Paid to Break With RFK on sodas [Bulwark]
MoveOn warns Democratic leaders over their strategy against Trump. “The memo…cautioned that grassroots volunteers and donors will stop helping the Democratic Party if it doesn’t do more to obstruct Trump.” [Politico]
Dems’ dark, deep hole. Among the problems? “Dwindling influence over the media ecosystem, with right-leaning podcasters and social media accounts ascendant.” [Axios]
How Democrats Are Honing Their New Media Strategy. Though: how fast, how widely? [C&E]
Note the last sentence in the quote, about a communications unit Democrats should copy: “Press secretaries in the past have been assigned a particular West Wing workspace — a big one, close to the Oval, with the wood-burning fireplace and view of the North Lawn. This time, that office went to Budowich, now a deputy chief of staff who oversees the entire press and communications operation. That operation has several fronts, including a team that serves pro-Trump content directly to people who may or may not read newspapers or watch cable news.” [WaPo]
From a piece on Voice of America cuts “…the administration’s rapid response account has reposted headlines where VOA has questioned ‘white privilege'”. Pro tip: Democrats should have one of them rapid response operations [Politico]
But if you do this, you’d better be for real: Ambitious Democrats Have a New Game Plan: Yak It Up About Sports on radio and podcasts [NYT]
Elissa Slotkin directed her response to Trump’s speech to Congress to high-information voters and activists. “‘Just by watching, you qualify as engaged citizens,’ she said.” [WaPo]
Billionaires and influencers: Republicans Eye Fundraising Future [C&E]
For Wisconsin liberals, upcoming Supreme Court race is first test of ‘lessons learned’. Influencing the conversation via online video, featuring friend-of-Epolitics Josh Klemons! [CNN]
Barack Obama Joins Bluesky on the ACA’s anniversary [TechCrunch]
The diminishing reach of individual memes, Elon schooled by gamers, what Obama means to Bluesky and more [Garbage Day]
Effective Advocacy Campaign Tips: What You Need to Know [Campaign Workshop]
Viral Audio of JD Vance Badmouthing Elon Musk Is Fake, Just the Tip of the AI Iceberg [404]
Elon Musk’s ‘truth-seeking’ chatbot often disagrees with him [WaPo]
Elon Musk also Has a Problem with Wikipedia [New Yorker]
And finally, a positive story: Young leaders become digital peacebuilders in North-East Nigeria [UN]
– cpd
Image by Nikolett Emmert from Pixabay
The biggest question re #signalgate is... Did these bombs work? 🤔 The answer like most of the war on terror is? Nope nope nope. The US military hasn't won a hot war since ww2 (with the help of the ussr).