The Cover-up Is Always Worse Than the Crime

Susan Estrich on Mar 29, 2025

The White House press secretary accused him of being an "anti-Trump hater," a "propagandist in the mainstream media," and of trying to sell a Signal "hoax." The president called him a "sleazebag."

President Donald Trump was reportedly furious, not at his own team but at the press, calling the investigation a witch hunt and The Atlantic, owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, the Apple founder's widow, a failed magazine.

The magazine acted with restraint -- and loyalty to the United States. Its editor-in-chief, respected journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, is the only one involved in this scandal who acted responsibly. For this, he gets attacked. Meanwhile, the principals -- the wrongdoers -- went to Capitol Hill and lied.

No confidential information? Detailed attack plans were revealed. Plans that involve pilots in the air, risking their lives. Loyal soldiers who could have been shot down.

How dumb do they think we are?

This was a major security breach. It should be unacceptable. Heads should roll. This is what happens when you appoint -- and confirm -- amateurs, television talking heads instead of experienced foreign policy hands, who don't even know the lesson that first-year associates learn on their first day of work: always check the names and numbers of people on a group text or a group call.

How dumb are they? This is the real world, with lives on the line, not "Fox and Friends," not play acting as secretary of defense or national security adviser.

The lesson we should have all learned from this is not only that the Trump team is simply unqualified (as if their Senate hearings didn't show that). It is how Team Trump handles mistakes, particularly big ones.

They don't admit the mistake. They don't take responsibility and make sure it will never happen again.

They lie.

They try to cover up.

They go on the attack.

They learn nothing from their mistakes, except for how to play the blame game.

The cover-up tells you even more about their character than the crime.

Consider this: Goldberg, when he learned the texts were real, did not release them in full but held them back in order to avoid compromising national security. But then the Trump team responded by lying, claiming there was no confidential information included in the detailed war plans. So Goldberg published the full texts, which left no doubt that the Trump team is not only incompetent but full of liars.

And what did Trump do? Did he take responsibility for his team? Did he thank the journalist for acting responsibly? Of course not. That is Trump. When was the last time Trump apologized for a mistake, or even acknowledged one? He's way too busy exacting vengeance for those who wronged him in the past -- getting even with Robert Mueller by attacking his old law firm, getting even with those who investigated him in the past by threatening their old law firms. This is a man so consumed with securing revenge that he is willing to abuse the powers of the presidency to taste it.

This will not be the last mistake. Even experienced and skilled leaders make mistakes, let alone a team as inexperienced and unconventional as the ones Trump has put together to deal with domestic policy and national security. An administration incapable of admitting mistakes is destined to make more of them. And who will they blame next? The parents of the unvaccinated children who die of measles? Will it be their fault? The pilots of the planes that crash because of understaffed and overworked air traffic controllers?

Trump and Musk and the rest are busy dismantling the federal government. There will be consequences. Who will take responsibility for them?

There are plenty of Republicans with experience in government and foreign policy who Trump could have brought into his administration. He didn't -- because all he cared about was personal loyalty to him. Senate Republicans let him get away with it because they were more afraid of Elon Musk primarying them than they were about the consequences. These are the consequences. They should be ashamed, and they should take responsibility.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.