Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz trolled President Donald Trump’s top national security officials during a hearing Tuesday by whipping out a poster board full of the same emojis they used in an inadvertently leaked Signal group chat.
The messages, which were part of the administration’s planning for airstrikes against the Houthi militant group in Yemen and may have contained classified information, first became public this week after The Atlantic’s dditor in chief, Jeff Goldberg, was mistakenly added to the chat by Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser.
Moskowitz in particular made fun of a chain of emojis used by Waltz to show his approval after the strikes were completed earlier this month.
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“It’s always good when we have something bipartisan to point it out, because it happens so little around here anymore, but rather than giving a really big, long speech I feel like I could just use this,” Moskowitz joked, pulling out a sheet emblazoned with three emojis: a punching fist, an American flag, and a fire emoji. “This will tell you I think it’s good.”
Moskowitz, a Democrat, tried to suppress his laughter as he continued hoisting up the board for his colleagues to see. “From now on, when we do things where we agree, I’ll just hold this up rather than giving a big long speech—job well done!”
Rep. Jamie Raskin quickly caught onto the joke.
“I’m not sure everyone understands the reference there, would you explain where that comes from?” he prompted.
“So, when we’re like, in a chat with friends, okay, having a casual chat about, like, where we’re dropping missiles,” Moskowitz began.
“Are you talking about a public chat room?” Raskin interrupted, playing dumb.
“Yeah, yeah!” said Moskowitz. “With friends, and we’re just like, you know, hamming about who we’re going to bomb and all of that.”
Moskowitz continued to say that hearings would be shorter if they just held up that sign whenever they agreed.
Even the sitting Republicans got a laugh out of it. “I think you’re supposed to have a flexed arm, instead of a fist,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), referring to another response from Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who messaged a photo of a curled bicep.
“What Signal chat are you in?” asked Moskowitz.
Raskin continued to press Moskowitz, this time referencing Goldberg, who was mistakenly added to chat by Waltz.
“What happens if there are reporters who might be there for that?” he asked.
“Well hopefully they’ll support America,” said Moskowitz. “And [think] that it’s... fire.”
Moskowitz’s wisecrack was aimed at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the more than a dozen national security officials who used the Signal messaging app to discuss high-risk war plans with top defense officials—despite being alerted about the app’s potential lack of security.
The chat also included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Goldberg exposed the blunder in an article where he claimed that if the information had been read by a U.S. adversary, it could have been “used to harm American military and intelligence personnel.”
He also suggested that Waltz may have violated the Espionage Act with the shocking oversight, which has sparked calls for a serious investigation of the Defense Department.
