The Outsider Perspective Issue 436 | The Beltway Outsiders

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Good Friday Morning! Except for the maniacs who prefer paper straws over plastic. One of Trump’s first executive orders was to reverse Biden’s ban on plastic straws, switching to paper. That decision has triggered a freakout on some segments of the left.

One woman, Karrie Laughton of Roc Paper Straws, who makes paper straws, had a freakout. She told the WSJ: “It’s exhausting,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d have to fight so hard for a straw, but I’ll keep fighting.”

But the problem, as Trump and anyone else has used them, can say: paper straws don’t work. It’d be one thing if paper straws worked. But they don’t. And it’s one of those Nanny-State policies by liberals that drives everyone bananas.

Speaking of things that drive you crazy, I’m jumping to the big story of the week: the Signal app leaks. We’ll get into that and why it’s a sign Trump isn’t getting served well by his team – links to follow.

Quick Hits:

Trump withdrew the nomination of Elise Stefanik as UN Ambassador. Rumblings on this started earlier in the week and peaked Thursday when the White House pulled the trigger. It has nothing to do with her. It has to do with 1) slim margins in the House and 2) the Trump team no longer believes they will hold the House in special elections. They could have waited until after the Pennsylvania special elections on April 1. Still, a move like this now shows the Trump team cutting bait. I don’t think you can forecast much from special elections – the 2026 midterms are 20 months away. But this is very clearly a move by a White House that doesn’t trust special elections and is protecting the very slim House margin.
A second book on Biden’s poor health/mental capacity is coming out. The book is “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle For The White House.” Previously, Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes wrote “Shattered,” the book on Clinton’s failed campaign against Trump. In the book, they claim Democrats started gaming out Biden not being on the ticket in 2023, and that included the possibility of Biden dying during the campaign. For reference, when I said these same things in 2023, I was a conspiracy theorist. The authors mention Biden being led around via fluorescent tape. Publication is April 1.
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Where you can find me this week

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Democrats Protect Violent Migrants Over American Citizens – Conservative Institute

Trump Has To Rebuilt Trust After Signal Scandal – Conservative Institute

The United Kingdom Is End-Stage Progressivism – Conservative Institute

The Signal and the Noise

In my Wednesday column, linked above, I covered the app Signal and why the White House’s use ofdidn’tdn’t bother me. I also covered the leaked texts scandal and why Trump needed to work to restore trust.

I have used Signal myself for years and am fully aware of its capabilities. Democrats have a mild case about the Trump administration using Signal to sidestep document retention laws.

I say mild because evading document retention laws is a big deal for Democrats. That was the entire reason Clinton ran an unsecured email server (literally anyone could access it)—it’s somewhat mindblowing that it’s been nearly a decade since the Clinton email server scandal. Signal and other secure messaging apps are far superior to that of Joe Biden using a pseudonymous email address to send White House documents to.

What’s strange about this scandal is that it basically doesn’t involve Trump at all. It was his staff and cabinet that caused the disaster, and he’s dealing with the fallout. And what’s even stranger about it is that they don’t seem to be serving him well.

CBS News noted this in their coverage. The team has messed up twice this week:

The Signal situation, which Waltz called “a mistake,” hasn’t been the only snafu for the president’s team this week. Mr. Trump on Wednesday evening was unaware that four U.S. military members had gone missing the day before in Lithuania until a reporter asked him about it during an on-camera event in the Oval Office.

The Army soldiers went missing early Tuesday during a military exercise. The Pentagon had publicly released information about the overseas incident at midday Wednesday, but staff hadn’t yet told the president.

Asked if he had been briefed, Mr. Trump told the reporter: “No, I haven’t,“ before moving on to the next press question. Mr. Trump typically chooses to not receive daily classified intelligence briefings, unlike past presidents. The search for the soldiers was continuing Thursday.

The dead soldier’s story is bizarre, and there is no good explanation for what happened from the United States or NATO.

But the combination of these two stories has revealed a staff that is all over the place, magnifying mistakes and not serving the President. Several conservatives noted that in the Signal chats, J.D. Vance appeared to be trying to manage the President.

Meanwhile, none of them are doing the bare minimum of their jobs. Trump should know about those dead soldiers, and he should have a clear explanation of how The Atlantic had a reporter in that group chat. I don’t think he has received either.

And then, to top things off, Hegseth, in particular, is making things worse by attacking The Atlantic for the releases and claiming everything in the story is false. This is despite the White House acknowledging everything. Brit Hume nailed matters when he wrote:

There are a couple of iron rules for dealing with a scandal. One: get the facts out as fast as possible and don’t be afraid to take responsibility. Two: Once rule one is taken care of, don’t feed the story.

With regard to the Signal message case, the administration is making a mess of rule two by getting bogged down in a dispute over whether the details of Yemen bombing raids were a war plan and whether those details were, or should have been, classified. All that has done is prolong the story.

The same goes for attacking the reporter who, through no fault or action of his own, received the Signal conversation. All attacking him did was give him a reason to release further details from the Signal chat, which appeared to contradict the administration’s claim that no “war” plans“ were discussed. That gave the story at least another day of life.

There is a lot of rank amateurism in the response. All Hegseth has done is drag the story out and put a bigger spotlight on himself and the White House.

Bombing the Houthis and reopening the Red Sea shipping lanes is good! The bombing mission was a success! We’We’veeded to do both of these things for years. Biden gave up the shipping lanes to a bunch of terrorists, which exasperated inflation issues globally.

However, the real issue with the signal leak is that Trump’s team is lying about how Jeffrey Goldberg got into that chain. None of the explanations or excuses for how it happened made sense. The only plausible explanation is that Mike Waltz added Goldberg to that group text. Was that an accident or on purpose? We don’t know.

Further, the chain unquestionably exposed U.S. intelligence. The Wall Street Journal reported that part of our intelligence came from Israel. The Journal reported:

Shortly after the U.S. strikes began, Waltz texted that a key target of the attacks, a Houthi missile expert, had been seen entering his girlfriend’s building, which he said had been destroyed.

Israeli officials complained privately to U.S. officials that Waltz’s texts became public, one U.S. official said.

Israel’s role in supplying information that helped track the militant highlights the sensitivity of some disclosures in the texts and raises questions about the Trump administration’s contention that no classified information was shared on the Signal chat, a publicly available nongovernmental app.

Avi Woolf noted in response to one of my tweets that the issue wasn’t just that Israel was mad about this. But this could make recruiting future intelligence sources harder.

You can’t make these kinds of mistakes at this level of government. That goes for both however Goldberg got added to the group text, and Hegseth making matters worse.

I’m on board with the decision to purge the agencies, including the Pentagon. But that still requires competence from leadership. Right now, neither Hegseth, Waltz, nor Vance is displaying that in the right quantities. This is amateur-hour stuff.

It’s also something they can correct. But if Hegseth and Waltz continue dragging this out and making the White House miserable, Trump will need to ax someone. If they keep this up, Trump may not have a choice.

Links of the week

King Charles hospitalized over side effects of cancer treatment – The Sun

CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins gets shut down by Trump’s VA director – Daily Mail

Warner Bros is tearing down the Looney Tunes building – Deadline

Rubio says White House has revoked 300 student visas – The Hill

Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker tries to make himself anti-Trump leader of Democratic Party – Washington Times

Policing as Public Health: Why Broken Windows still applies – City Journal

Chuck Schumer’s very bad week is an ominous sign for his Senate leadership – MSNBC

Free speech lessons from jackass Jasmine Crockett and anti-Israel foreign students – NYPost

At Hamas’s Encouragement, Students for Justice in Palestine Sponsors March Commemorating Iran-Established ‘Al Quds Day’ – Free Beacon

FBI whistleblowers, including one with info on Strzok, want bureau to review their cases – Just The News

X/Twitter Thread(s) of the week