Taylor Swift name-dropped in US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing after 'Signalgate' leak

She’s one of the most famous people on the planet, but no one was expecting Taylor Swift’s name to pop up during a Senate Intelligence Committee meeting on Tuesday.  

The meeting featured senators who sought an explanation for how top Trump officials inadvertently included editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group chat which divulged classified top-secret war plans to bomb Houthi militia forces in Yemen.

The hearing shifted to concerns about the hostile and belittling comments made by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding the US' European allies.  

“I just hate bailing out the Europeans again,” Vance said in the chat, asserting that the strikes on the Houthis would benefit Europe far more than the US. 

“I fully share your loathing of European freeloading,” Hegseth replied. “It’s PATHETIC.” 

This led Democratic Virginia Senator Mark Warner to highlight the dangers of alienating allies to the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and FBI Director Kash Patel. In doing so, he refered to last summer’s thwarted terrorist plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna and schooled them on how the sharing of intel between allies can save lives.  

“That sharing of information saves lives, and it’s not hypothetical — we all remember, because it was declassified — last year when Austria worked with our (intelligence) community to make sure to expose a plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna that could have killed literally hundreds of individuals,” Warner said. 

Indeed, the CIA and other US intelligence agencies worked with Austrian law enforcement, which in turned disrupted the ISIS-inspired plot to attack an Eras Tour concert in Vienna. 

Warner added that he was troubled by the way that the Trump administration seems to have decided “that we can take on all our problems by ourselves, without any needs for friends or allies.” 

“I agree we need to make America’s priorities first, but America first cannot be America alone,” Warner continued.  “The intelligence we gather to keep Americans safe depends on a lot of allies around the world who have access to sources we don’t have.” 

Goldberg said he had never seen a security breach “quite like this” and the scandal has led to ridicule and critics bemoaning how national security is at risk in what increasingly looks to be a kakistocracy. Senior figures in the Democratic party have called for the resignation of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The SNAFU has led Donald Trump’s political rival Hilary Clinton - who was hounded by Trump over her use of a private email server for official public communications in 2016 - to share a screenshot of the “Signalgate” article by Goldberg.  

She summed up the mood rather well with a short and cutting response to the group chat scandal: “You have got to be kidding me." 

Faced with the backlash, US National Security advisor Mike Waltz took full responsibility for the Europe-bashing group chat situation. 

"I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News, adding he didn't know how Jeffrey Goldberg was added.

"It is embarrassing," Waltz admitted of the bombshell leak.

Additional sources • CNN, Fox News