The word came down from on high—no more
recipient auto fill allowed when sending emails from our Outlook. Yes, one of
the world’s largest technology companies (the kind you only know about by walking
past their innocuous yet omnipresent ads in most major airports) was banning
one of the most common, and time-saving, features in modern communications.
Unsaid was why, but everyone knew that somebody had accidentally copied the
wrong person on an email.
The unfolding story about the Trump
administration’s national security team’s unwitting inclusion of a hostile
reporter to their Houthi bombing text chain has caused an international stir.
Screaming headlines of “Leaked Classified Information” started every story,
with cabinet officials dancing around what the definition of is, is, when it
comes to classifying battle plans. Getting past the emoji bro-boasting, there
was some interesting substance to the conversation. While bashing Europe is a
daily pastime for this administration, it highlights an important problem for the
U.S.: why are we swatting $10,000 drones out of the sky with million-dollar missiles?
The right of freely navigating international waters is important, but this plan can’t
work financially in the long term—other countries have to share in this cost or
launch their own million-dollar missiles. Perhaps the mighty Belgian navy can
splatter high-quality chocolate against these enemy menaces.
Yet it seems to me that nobody is asking
the most critical question: Why was anybody having a conversation in the first
place, other than to confirm operational success?
During my time working for the
Giuliani administration, I was hardly the guy who was in the room where it
happened (even though City Hall was barely a half mile from Alexander Hamilton’s
grave). But I did have plenty of meetings with the folks who were in that room.
One such time was with a Deputy Mayor and his staff, with my boss and I joining
in (our part of the administration reported to a different Deputy Mayor). Over
the course of our meeting, the increasingly agitated Deputy Mayor blurted out
in anger, “But this agency reports to me!” My boss, a master of managing internal
politics, gently but firmly reminded him, “The MAYOR asked our Deputy Mayor to
run with this.” Some might refer to this as a “power move,” but it really was a
reminder that this meeting was about moving forward and that the decision on
who was leading it had already been made by the boss. Implicit was also the
message that the offended party could go back to the Mayor, but it wouldn’t end
well bringing it up again.
Which brings us back to text chains
and bombing Houthis. I have no doubt that Trump’s national security team had prepared
policy memos and made presentations to the President, weighed the options, and been
given the final go-ahead. I’m also sure that some advisors were annoyed that
some of their views weren’t adopted, and I’m also equally sure there are
corridors in the West Wing or sulky staff offices where these folks could blow
off some steam. The collective leadership failure, then, was not knowing when
to stop talking, through a text app or otherwise, and move on to the next
issue. Going back to the boss was not an option.
As to the consequences of this
app-driven SNAFU, my own feeling is that whoever added the errant journalist’s
name to the group chat, and increasingly it seems to be National Security
Advisor Mike Waltz, needs to be fired. There was no subterfuge or ill will in
his actions, but he utterly screwed up with the most sensitive of information.
And what ever happened to sending
emails from my former consulting company employer? A few weeks later another
note came through that the auto fill restriction had been lifted. There was an
admonition to check your sender’s list very carefully going forward, a concept
more than a few people in D.C. should be taking to heart.
© 2025 Alexander W. Stephens, All
Rights Reserved.
