When an aide accidentally called an old enemy instead of who he was supposed to call, President Donald Trump’s reaction was reportedly priceless: He chewed out the guy on the other end of the line.
That’s at least the gist of a report from CBS News, which alleged that, on March 3, Trump accidentally called retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster on his personal cell line due to an aide’s mix-up and then delivered a rant when he found out the former national security advisor was at the other end of the line.
“Just a day earlier, on March 2, Mr. Trump had lobbed his latest insult at McMaster, blasting him on social media as a ‘weak and totally ineffective loser,’” the report from Wednesday noted.
“McMaster had also just appeared on CBS’ ’60 Minutes,’ where he voiced skepticism about Mr. Trump’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Putin’s willingness to end the war in Ukraine.”
McMaster was told to hold for the president by the voice at the other end, four sources with knowledge of the call told CBS News — and when he got on the line, Trump reportedly began by calling him “Henry.”
This was when McMaster realized the call wasn’t intended for him.
“McMaster goes by H.R., short for Herbert Raymond. Not Henry,” CBS News reported.
So, the former national security advisor was forced to let him know who it was.
“Mr. President, this is H.R. McMaster,” he said.
Should the aide who made this mistake be fired?
Trump’s reported response: “Why the f*** would I talk” to you? Subsequently, two sources said, “Trump launched into a scathing critique of his former aide.”
After a short call, both men were off the line.
Two sources also told CBS that the real target of the call was South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster. He ended up with the wrong McMaster — although you can’t tell me he didn’t have fun with it.
It’s a bit of his charm that Trump rarely forgives and forgets, particularly if you continue to insinuate things that aren’t necessarily true.
And, to be fair to H.R. McMaster, it’s not like blabbed to CBS News; he didn’t comment, and he hasn’t pulled a Jeffrey Goldberg and written “Trump Accidentally Phoned Me With His F-Bomb Plans” for The Atlantic yet.
That being said, this is the second time in less than 90 days of the Trump administration that someone has let somebody who shouldn’t be in on a conversation into a conversation. This time, at the very least, it’s an amusing anecdote — but keep in mind, it was just days before the Mike Waltz/Atlantic Signal debacle.
Yes, this is an administration that likes to move fast and break things. That’s a good thing, in general. There’s plenty of things that need to be broken, and fast, after all.
However, that can’t come at the expense of both security and optics.
This is sloppiness on the part of the administration that needs to be fixed. Yes, it’s funny, and I can’t think of someone who deserves this sort of thing more than McMaster. The media is able to turn this around as a castigation of President Trump, however, not just because of the swear word, but because of the unforced error.
So, mark it up as a hilarious anecdote — but also a learning opportunity. We can only hope that this is taken as an opportunity for the White House to tighten its communications security.
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