AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Former State Secretary Hillary Clinton torched President Donald Trump’s “slash-and-burn” administration as “feeble” and “dumb” while mocking the Signalgate scandal that saw military plans shared on a commercial group chat that accidentally included a journalist.
The takedown came in the form of a searing gloves-off guest editorial published Friday in The New York Times titled “This Is Just Dumb” – using a word repeated six times as she courses through her analysis.
“It’s not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it’s the stupidity. We’re all shocked — shocked! — that President Trump and his team don’t actually care about protecting classified information,” Clinton opened on Signalgate. “But we knew that already. What’s much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy… That’s dangerous. And it’s just dumb.”
Clinton’s essay, part policy critique and part political gut punch, takes direct aim at what she calls the “slash-and-burn” governing style of the Trump administration, accusing it of undermining U.S. military strength with “a string of
self-inflicted wounds”, trashing diplomatic relations, and abandoning America’s strategic edge.
The Democrat ripped up the cuts to federal programs and agencies – including nuclear and health officials – implemented by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as “dumb.”
“The Trump approach is dumb power,” Clinton continued. “Instead of a strong America using all our strengths to lead the world and confront our adversaries, Mr. Trump’s America will be increasingly blind and blundering, feeble and friendless.”
The former 2016 Democratic nominee also targeted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (jibing “of group chat fame”) directly, ridiculing the Pentagon’s “performative fights over wokeness” and their decision to purge tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen and the Enola Gay.
“Dumb,” she repeated.
The Trump administration’s “shredding of our soft power” and “defunding inspectors” watching Iran’s nuclear activity – “dumb.”
“Today they are not reinventing government; they’re wrecking it,” she said.
Clinton continued: “All of this is both dumb and dangerous. And I haven’t even gotten to the damage Mr. Trump is doing by cozying up to dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, blowing up our alliances — force multipliers that extend our reach and share our burdens — and trashing our moral influence by undermining the rule of law at home. Or how he’s tanking our economy and blowing up our national debt.”
She added: “If there’s a grand strategy at work here, I don’t know what it is. Maybe Mr. Trump wants to return to 19th-century
spheres of influence. Maybe he’s just driven by personal grudges and is in way over his head.”
Closing out, Clinton took a shot at Trump’s past: “As a businessman, he bankrupted his Atlantic City casinos. Now he’s gambling with the national security of the United States. If this continues, a group chat foul will be the least of our concerns, and all the fist and flag emojis in the world won’t save us.”
