Mind you, these same people deride DEI programs! It has been a couple of weeks since the Signal Leak Crisis,where several of President Trump’s national security officials engaged in a text chat session with several high-level Cabinet members. They included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; and Vice President JD Vance. They evidently wanted to hash out plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen and used a messaging app to share the plans. However, they mysteriously added Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, to the group chat and continued to divulge information that was, needless to say, highly sensitive.

Additionally, many of the chat’s messages were set to auto-delete in what appears to violate federal records-keeping laws. Witnessing the lurid details unfold has been an exercise in shock and incredulity. Indeed, it is difficult to decide what the most disturbing aspect of the entire scandal was. Reckless behavior or gross incompetence? The potential danger that such antics could produce? Texting prayer emojis prior to launching weapons? Such a spectacle reminds me of a 21st-century version of Dr. Strangelove, the 1964 film starring Peter Sellers, James Earl Jones, and George C. Scott. In fact, I have shown the film in my class on the Cold War. For those of you who have not seen it (a cult classic in certain circles), the characters in the war room expose their incompetence and talk about the danger they are unable to grasp until it is too late to do so.

In a breathtaking story, Goldberg wrote that he knew two hours before the rest of the world when the initial bombs would drop on March 15 because Hegseth “had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m.” This operation included deft information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. All of this was incredulously revealed on Signal, an encrypted phone app.

Understandably and appropriately, such a horrendously irresponsible and egregious act garnered bipartisan criticism. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton referred to the debacle as “dumb.” The conservative National Review demanded that Hegseth be fired, with executive editor Mark Antonio Wright referring to the episode as “a tale so clownish, so stunning, so outlandish that it would seem to better fit into a gonzo satire of government ineptitude such as ‘Burn After Reading’ or ‘Veep.’” Across the pond in England, Sir Ed Davey, a member of the British Parliament and leader of the Liberal Democrats, said on X that “JD Vance and his mates clearly aren’t fit to run a group chat, let alone the world’s strongest military force. It has to make our security services nervous about the intelligence we’re sharing with them.”

Rather than confess to a major screwup, the Trump administration went into a perverse form of offense mode by trashing Goldberg, a journalist Trump detests because Goldberg has adopted a “take no prisoners” approach to writing about topics that have rankled the president. Vice President JD Vance argued on X that Goldberg “oversold what he had”; Waltz chimed in sophomorically calling Goldberg a “loser” and a liar; and Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, dishonestly debunked successive stories on the major mishap as “another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well known for his sensationalist spin.” So much for taking responsibility for one’s own actions.

Do not let the false bravado deceive you. Trump, Hegseth, and company are focused on disingenuous arguments on issues such as wokeness, DEI, LGBTQIA+ rights, and transgender people rather than preparing for important battles with the nation’s enemies. Think about it. They have demanded that the Pentagon delete tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen, remove photos of soldiers of multiple races and ethnicities at Iwo Jima, and purge images of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb that ended World War II because its name is the Enola Gay. Irrefutably stupid.

This scandal points to the larger issues of hypocrisy. When it comes to far-right politics, every accusation tends to result in messy and awkward revelations where the truth, which most people largely know, is dramatically exposed. DEI is no exception - Trump’s cabinet is one of the least diverse, least credentialed, and most professionally inept, saturated with incompetence. The retrograde discussion on Signal highlighted the juvenile, frat boy, manosphere environment at the administration’s senior levels.

The truth is that no individual in the Trump cabinet is genuinely qualified for their jobs. South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, who callously shot a puppy dog in the face, is now running the Department of Homeland Security. Hegseth, a former Fox News presenter who decorates his body with despicable White nationalist tattoos and blatantly demonstrates his chronic personal and professional deficiencies, is now defense secretary.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has adopted a “hear no evil, fear no evil, see no evil” stance when it comes to addressing any conflict relating to untoward behavior in the Trump administration. Likewise, “my boss can do no wrong” Leavitt received a top-level communications gig at the White House due to a Fox News internship. This current administration is bereft of competence. The executive branch has no talent, experience, or knowledge - Republicans have replaced DEI with mediocrity. Right-wing lunatics are running the political asylum.

To keep it real, many White people, particularly those in the middle class and above, consider their skin pigmentation an entitlement to success and high-paying careers. This has been the case throughout American history. Eradicating DEI programs is a less vile approach to promote and usher in a new era of racial segregation. This is what “Make America Great Again” was always about - returning to a Jim Crow era to make the nation “great” for an elite segment while prohibiting opportunities for others whose backgrounds were not White, male, and at minimum, upscale. We must forcefully challenge such racism, sexism, and elitism.