Months into an administration that has already suffered several basic security slipups, it’s not exactly surprising to see President Donald Trump airing complaints in a public Truth Social post that seemed intended for Pam Bondi’s DMs. In the post, Trump directly addresses U.S. Attorney General Bondi, criticizing the lack of legal action against his adversaries.
“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk no action,” Trump wrote. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!)… JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” He added that White House aide Lindsey Halligan is a “really good lawyer” and implied that she would take up a case against New York Attorney General Leticia James for alleged mortgage fraud. Trump nominated Halligan as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia shortly after.
Though Trump’s post initially didn’t include Halligan’s last name, a republished version added it, suggesting that maybe the administration was trying to make it look a bit more like a public-facing message. It’s the kind of tactic we’ve seen from the Trump administration before, like when officials tried to justify Trump’s (almost certainly) “covfefe” typo.
Aside from the alarming contents of the message, the flub highlights a disturbing trend that has members of the Trump administration divulging sensitive information on platforms that don’t have the same standards as the secured equipment and networks typically used by the government. Trump is clearly comfortable sending what appears to be confidential information over a DM on a social platform — a class of communication that’s notoriously insecure. And it doesn’t seem like the rest of his team puts much care into how they’re dealing with classified communications, either.
The situation continued to snowball when a report from The New York Times revealed that US Secretary of War (previously Defense) Pete Hegseth also shared information about the Yemen strikes in a separate Signal chat with non-government officials, including his wife, brother, and several other personal and professional connections. Hegseth reportedly used his personal phone number for these communications on Signal, which the Times also traced to WhatsApp, Facebook, and a fantasy sports site.
Even ICE agents seem to have had trouble keeping their chats under wraps. Last month, a report from 404 Media detailed how ICE officials inadvertently added a random person to a group chat, which revealed sensitive information about an individual “seemingly marked for deportation,” including their criminal history, Social Security number, and driver’s license number.
The security risks don’t even stop at person-to-person messages. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team has been sifting through sensitive government information in the background, despite concerns that employees don’t have the proper security clearance. A federal appeals court granted DOGE access to an even broader swath of information in August, ruling that the non-official government department can dig through data at the Treasury Department, the Education Department, and the Office of Personnel Management.
The number of security lapses and potential privacy violations that have occurred not even a year into Trump’s second term raises, to understate the matter, some serious red flags. Even though the information leaked by the administration hasn’t been (as far as the public knows) hugely damaging thus far, government officials could put the entire country at risk if their communications fall into the wrong hands.
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