Here we go again! Writing about Mike Waltz’s cybersecurity disasters feels like I’m caught in my own personal Groundhog Day. Except instead of Bill Murray fumbling through Punxsutawney, it’s Waltz fumbling through the basics of Operations Security (OPSEC). The man tasked with safeguarding America’s critical information is out here running global crises on Signal group chats—20 of them—and using Gmail for sensitive communications. That’s right, Gmail. The same platform where your spam folder is filled with Nigerian princes and phishing scams. For someone in charge of national security, Waltz sure seems to think OPSEC is optional.
Let’s break this down in military terms because apparently, Waltz skipped that briefing. OPSEC 101 teaches you to identify critical information, analyze threats, and implement countermeasures to deny adversaries access to sensitive data. Instead, Waltz has turned Signal into his personal Tactical Operations Center (TOC), complete with unsecured comms that could make any SIGINT (signals intelligence) analyst drool. And Gmail? That’s not just a breach waiting to happen; it’s practically an engraved invitation for adversaries to exploit vulnerabilities. If this were a field exercise, Waltz would already be standing tall before the man for compromising mission-critical information.
The arrogance here is staggering. Waltz’s reliance on consumer-grade platforms like Signal and Gmail suggests he either doesn’t understand the adversary’s perspective or doesn’t care. OPSEC isn’t just about encryption; it’s about minimizing indicators and denying adversaries the ability to piece together a mosaic of our intentions and capabilities. Every Signal chat he creates and every email he sends on Gmail is another data point for foreign intelligence services to exploit. He might as well be broadcasting our strategic priorities on open comms during a convoy movement.
At this point, even Punxsutawney Phil would be shaking his head at the sheer repetition of these mistakes. Waltz is living his own Groundhog Day, but unlike Bill Murray, he doesn’t seem interested in learning from his failures. Instead of securing his comms with government-approved platforms like SIPRNet or JWICS, he’s out here playing tech bro with tools that belong in a civilian office, not the National Security Council. If there’s one thing we know about OPSEC, it’s this: the enemy only needs one weak link to exploit. And right now, Mike Waltz is that weak link—on repeat.
So how will the Trump administration respond to this ongoing clown show? If history is any guide, we’ll probably get a healthy dose of whataboutisms—“But her emails!”—and deflections about how this isn’t as bad as whatever their favorite scapegoat did last week. Here’s a challenge for them: skip the partisan spin and own up to the problem. Address the glaring lack of OPSEC directly and explain how they’re going to fix it before more sensitive information ends up compromised. National security isn’t a game, and it sure as hell isn’t a platform for amateur hour tech experiments. If they want Americans to take them seriously on security, they need to start by holding Waltz accountable and implementing real changes—because right now, this administration is looking less like a well-oiled machine and more like a broken record stuck on repeat.
