United States: 'Signalgate' exposes the rot of American imperialism

A firestorm has erupted in DC, putting Trump on the defensive for the first time in months. The scandal, dubbed “Signalgate,” has dominated the headlines of every major bourgeois media outlet this week

[Originally published at communistusa.org on 28 March 2025]

It began with the revelation that high-ranking American officials inadvertently invited Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic and former Israeli prison-camp guard, to a Signal group chat created to coordinate US attacks targeting Ansar Allah (aka “the Houthis”) in Yemen.

The Atlantic has released most of the contents, while preserving its pro-imperialist bonafides by dutifully withholding anything it deemed excessively compromising to the CIA. Despite the magazine’s self-censorship, the messages shine a spotlight on the rotting edifice of American imperialism.

In public, Trump and other MAGA leading lights have dismissed the affair as a “witch hunt,” “hoax,” and “unfair.” Behind closed doors, the knives are out for National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, creator of the Signal group, who took “full responsibility” for the embarrassing episode. There is disquiet in Trump’s ranks—meaning heads will likely roll to protect the boss.

Gleeful celebration of death and destruction

Discussion of the heinous and unprovoked crime US imperialism committed in Yemen has been drowned out by the capitalist media’s inane speculation over which personalities may be fired for the leak.

American bombs struck crowded neighborhoods and a cancer clinic under construction in the city of Saada. According to local sources, the US attacks have killed at least 57 people so far, including women and children.

This is only the most recent American imperialist outrage committed against Yemen. Three US Presidents—Obama, Biden, and Trump—have armed and funded Saudi Arabia’s horrific war on the country for over 10 years. At least 377,000 Yemenis have been killed from violence, disease, and deprivation—including no fewer than 85,000 children deliberately starved to death by Saudi and American imperialism.

In solidarity with the Palestinians, the Houthis have launched missiles and armed drones at merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea since the outbreak of Israel’s US-backed genocide in Gaza. As a result, they’ve managed to disrupt shipping through the Suez Canal, a vital corridor for world trade.

Despite ample provocation, the Houthis don’t attack Red Sea shipping indiscriminately. What they have done is impose their own version of “sanctions” on Israel—in response to the Zionist regime blocking humanitarian aid and resuming attacks on Gaza.

Unlike reactionary regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Gulf States, Jordan, etc., they are the only government in the Muslim world risking their lives trying to help the Palestinians. As a result, they’ve won respect and admiration across the region—and the ire of the imperialists.

In response, the US launched a de facto war against Yemen to ensure the shipping magnates’ profits and the supply of weapons to Israel. The latest attacks, coinciding with Netanyahu’s decision to break the Gaza ceasefire, bring the US-inflicted death toll in Yemen to nearly 200.

The Signal chat’s participants celebrated the destruction of an entire apartment building allegedly in order to kill a single Houthi military official. Waltz reported this naked aggression against one of the most impoverished and war-torn countries on Earth with a sickening string of emojis: “👊🇺🇸🔥.”

Waltz reported this naked aggression against one of the most impoverished and war-torn countries on Earth with a sickening string of emojis / Image: United States Federal Government

Dissension in the Trump camp

Vice President JD Vance was initially unconvinced of the attack plan, worrying it would cause a spike in oil prices. Vance eventually gave his blessing to the operation—after offering a touching note of concern for the safety of Saudi oil refineries, which could be vulnerable to Houthi retaliation.

Imperialist foreign policy is an extension of the capitalists’ domestic policy. Trump rode back to power by promising to end inflation, reverse declining living standards, and usher in a new golden age of American capitalism. But poll ratings on his handling of the economy are already falling. A regional conflagration in the Middle East, potentially drawing in Iran, would torpedo the US (and world) economy—and risk taking Trump down with it.

Trump faces an unsolvable problem in the Middle East. He needs stability in the region, in order to focus on retrenching American imperialism in the Western hemisphere and taking aim at its biggest competitor, rising Chinese imperialism. He also needs low energy prices to combat inflation.

Vance was initially unconvinced of the attack plan. Hegseth countered that failure to act risked ceding the initiative / Image: US Secretary of Defense, Wikimedia Commons

But, despite selling himself as a “peace” candidate last November, Trump is confronted with the realities of having to manage declining American imperialism’s overstretch. The US imperialists want to restore “navigational freedom” in the Red Sea and Suez Canal in order to ensure economic stability. But their only means for attempting to do so are bombs and missiles—causing inhuman carnage in Yemen which threaten to further destabilize the whole region.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth noted in the chat that failure to act risked ceding the initiative and, therefore, a degree of control over how the latest round of conflict in the Middle East unfolds. According to Vance, this position apparently reflects the “consensus” of Trump’s foreign policy advisors, and thus the attacks went forward.

Time will tell whether these bombings mark the beginning of a renewed, general offensive against Yemen, or if they are a one-off act calculated simply to, in Vance’s words, “send a message” to Iran.

Europe and the Suez Canal

The Signal messages also highlight the ongoing divorce between American and European imperialism. It’s significant that the real substance of the chat transcript begins with JD Vance complaining that it is American, rather than European, forces taking action to reopen the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

According to his figures, only 3% of commerce through the canal comes to the US, compared with 40% of European trade. Vance lamented having to “bail out” the Europeans again.

Hegseth piled on, referring to European “freeloading” as “PATHETIC.” Later, the conversation turned to getting Europe to “remunerate” the US for its services against the Houthis.

When asked what he made of Vance and Hegseth’s comments, Trump, in his inimitable style, replied “Do you really want me to answer? Yeah, I think they’ve been freeloading.”

This glib commentary from the highest circles of the American executive touched a sensitive nerve in Europe. As reported by Politico:

“It’s sobering to see the way they speak about Europe when they think no one is listening,” one EU diplomat said … “But at the same time this isn’t surprising … It’s just that now we see their reasoning in all its undiplomatic glory.”

An EU official said Vance “happens to be the ideologue this time around but he is bound to make mistakes and eventually drop the ball.” After that, at some point the U.S. will return to being a reliable partner, the official said.

A second EU diplomat agreed that history suggested America would one day return to its role as a solid ally for Europe. “For the time being, and despite the sometimes nice diplomatic words, trust is broken,” the diplomat said. “There is no alliance without trust.”

The Europeans remain hopeful for a return to “reliability,” and the restoration of “trust”—presumably if and when the Democrats return to power—but all experience points to the opposite. While Trump is an accelerant, rising conflict between Europe and the US is rooted in fundamental economic realities.

European capitalism is in long-term decline, and US capitalism wants to slow down its trajectory down that same road. When it was ascendant, American imperialism underwrote European stability by extending its military umbrella across the continent. Now, Europe has increasingly become a liability as the US imperialists face more pressing concerns—above all the rise of China.

Trumpist attitudes towards Europe, as revealed in the Signal leaks, are only a more explicit and determined recognition of the real state of affairs than the liberal US establishment is willing to say openly.

When asked what he made of Vance and Hegseth’s comments, Trump replied “Do you really want me to answer? Yeah, I think they’ve been freeloading.” / Image: Gage Skidmore, Flickr

But their actions speak for themselves. Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was seen in European capitals as an act of trade warfare. Worse still, Biden provoked the Ukraine war knowing it would weaken European economies, particularly Germany’s.

American participation in—or at the very least acquiescence to—the destruction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was an act of kinetic as well as economic warfare if ever there was one. This is what the “trusted” American liberals really think of their European “friends.”

Lifting the veil 

After months of confusion, infighting, and pathetic cowering before Trump, the Democrats are on the offensive. Not, of course, because they oppose the criminal murder of Yemeni women and children. The only “crime” Trump and his cronies committed was to “endanger US national security” and lift the veil of American imperialism before the entire world.

Democrats sounded off during a March 25 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, accusing the Trump administration of incompetence and risking the safety of American soldiers and spies. Liberal politicians are demanding the resignations of Hegseth and Waltz.

Meanwhile, House Democrats are preparing a resolution calling for the administration to hand over documents related to this incident, which they hope to bring to the floor for a vote in the coming days.

It’s not the continued bombing of Yemen or Trump’s support of Israel’s renewed slaughter in Gaza that calls forth such outrage on the part of the Democrats. Precisely the opposite! / Image: Ibrahem Qasim, Wikimedia Commons

It’s not the continued bombing of Yemen or Trump’s support of Israel’s renewed slaughter in Gaza that calls forth such outrage on the part of the Democrats. Precisely the opposite! Their concern is nothing other than the success of these scandalous American policies, which Trump has only adopted from his Democratic predecessors.

The capitalist class needs a reliable ally to help them secure vital resources in the Middle East. Israel is the only option left to them. The liberals and MAGA represent different wings of that class, but both are united on this issue. This tells us all we need to know about America’s “lesser-evil” party.

Down with US imperialism!

Revolutionary communists welcome these leaks as an important opportunity to explain the real machinations unfolding behind the curtains of bourgeois rule. While the pro-imperialist media nervously frets about the competence of Trump’s highest-ranking officials, the RCA recognizes that the chaotic nature of Trumpism is part and parcel of the deepening crisis of the bourgeois regime in America.

Whatever the fate of Waltz and Hegseth may be, we can be sure it will bear no resemblance to that of people like Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Jack Teixeira, who, regardless of their motivations, all provided a service to the world working class by revealing various aspects of imperialist crimes to the public—and faced life-altering consequences for their efforts.

The RCA fights for the establishment of a workers’ government in America. This government will put an end to the imperialist policies of the capitalist class, an effort which will include the full disclosure of the former capitalist government’s secret diplomacy, military plans, counterintelligence operations, and much more. Until that day comes, American communists will fight to expose all of the schemes and crimes of the ruling class.