The Leak Heard ’Round the PR World

What Happens When Denial Becomes the Strategy

Let’s get one thing straight: this crisis wasn’t about a tech platform. It was about power, ego, and a stunning lack of communication discipline at the highest level of government.

[The full podcast episode is available early for paid members—scroll down to watch and listen now.]

The Signal leak involving Trump cabinet members was framed as a “non-issue” by the administration. But here’s the problem: when your PR strategy is built on denial and deflection, the story doesn’t go away—it multiplies.

Let’s break this one down.

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How the Trump Cabinet’s Comms Collapsed

Signal didn’t fail. People did.

Pete Hegseth sharing precise military operation timings in a Signal group chat wasn’t just reckless—it was verifiable. When The Atlantic’s editor was accidentally looped in? Game over. No amount of “nothing was classified” spin could undo the breach of trust that followed.

What came next was textbook deflection:

• “No classified info was shared” — until it clearly was.

• “This is a political witch hunt” — the go-to, lazy defense.

• “Maybe Signal failed” — a reach, and a dangerous one.

This wasn’t a communications strategy. It was a fire drill with no exit plan.

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The Atlantic’s Opportunistic Move: Journalism or Strategy?

Let’s not pretend The Atlantic didn’t see the moment—and take it.

The magazine published parts of the chat and leaned hard into the “you can’t make this up” narrative. Was it justified journalism? Arguably, yes. But it was also a strategic move to boost credibility (and probably subscribers).

That’s the tension here: truth vs. timing. And in media, those things rarely operate separately.

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Human Insight: The Denial Spiral

Here’s where this hits differently:

Denial might feel like control in the moment, but it’s never a long-term strategy. The more you downplay, the more people dig. And when they find receipts—and oh, they always do—it’s worse than the original offense.

You either control the story, or the story controls you.

The Trump cabinet tried to minimize a clear crisis. Instead, they maximized the spotlight. That’s the real takeaway here: spin can’t hold under scrutiny. Accountability can.

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