Readers Write: Hegseth’s blunder, St. Paul’s future

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had a drink in his hand when Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was looped into a Signal message sequence culminating in top-secret war plans for attacking Houthis in Yemen is beside the point (“War plans shared in chat that included journalist,” March 25).

As anyone slightly versed in secure communications knows, not only were these messages not for copying to journalists, but their transmission was strictly prohibited by any means other than through approved government equipment or via a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) for every party in the message loop.

Yet the Trump national security hierarchy, from Hegseth to Vice President JD Vance to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intelligence head Tulsi Gabbard, and on down, debated the attack and celebrated its prosecution with gleeful emojis over a less-than-secure, absolutely-forbidden-for-this-sort-of-communication network.

Treating the planning of an attack on another nation as if it were an invitation to a weekend party shows the Trump national security team for what it is, a frat-house clown show. America, beware. These clowns hold your safety and our nation’s security in their hands.

Peter Hill, Minnetonka

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After hearing DEI blamed for everything including a deadly plane crash over the last couple of months, it’s sad and embarrassing to see the complete lack of competence of the Trump administration. To see unqualified people like Gabbard, Hegseth and Vance discuss a military strike with all the care and seriousness of plans for happy hour after work would be hilarious if it weren’t so dangerous. This is what happens when someone employs their friends for important jobs without regard to qualifications.

Craig Hewitt, Crystal

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The inadvertent texting of military strike information by defense officials to a journalist led to proper alarm by members of Congress demanding answers for the security breach. But why haven’t members of Congress raised questions and alarm about the U.S. conducting bombing missions in Yemen without a declaration of war? The War Powers Resolution limits the president’s authority to wage war without a declaration of war by Congress. The silence by members of Congress, including Minnesota’s congressional delegation, once again leaves unchecked the actions of this administration. How much did the airstrike cost? How long will the bombings last? Are there other targets? Why is the U.S. bombing Yemen while showing lukewarm support for Ukraine? Somebody in Congress needs to ask these and other hard questions while digging into the inept texting by those in power.

Stephen C. Fiebiger, Burnsville

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I am appalled by the lack of concern for national security displayed by high-ranking members of Trump’s Cabinet. Not only did Hegseth, Vance and others use a forbidden app, they didn’t even notice that an outsider was included. The Trump White House does not seem concerned, in contrast with the huge deal Trump made about Hillary Clinton using her own secure email server. I wonder if the president even realizes what a breach of security his Cabinet members have made. Perhaps if he spent less time playing golf and deporting innocent migrants, he might be able to focus more on real national security.

Barbara LeTourneau, Roseville

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Wow! Trump’s national security brain brought a liberal magazine editor into their war plans group chat by mistake. His number must be very similar to Vladimir Putin’s.

Dan McInerny, Victoria

I read with great agreement Andy Brehm’s recent commentary on St. Paul’s elected leadership (“An unserious St. Paul City Council fiddles while downtown crumbles,” March 24). As a relative newcomer to this area, who also actively chose to live here rather than just growing up here, it’s disheartening to see downtown St. Paul continue its streak of nadirs. Any city council can only realistically impact what goes on within its own city limits, and anything else is, well, anything else.

I relocated to the Twin Cities from Phoenix in 2022 after being recruited by a company up here. I knew I would live in a downtown, after having lived in downtown Phoenix for 16 years. I ended up settling over in downtown St. Paul after a year in Minneapolis. Downtown St. Paul struck me as very similar to the downtown Phoenix of 2006-2008: lots of potential, but just waiting for a spark. Phoenix’s two sparks were the arrival of Arizona State University’s downtown Phoenix campus in 2006 and the opening of light rail in 2008. Since 2008, and through recessions and varying degrees of hostile state and federal governments, downtown Phoenix has generally been a success story.

Being active in downtown Phoenix’s leadership circles while I lived there, we knew that the solutions we needed weren’t the Phoenix City Council’s exclusive purview. But they set the stage and got out of the way to let private enterprise flourish, which it has. St. Paul’s elected leaders would only be so wise to heed that advice.

Edward Jensen, St. Paul

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In Brehm’s recent column, he speaks to issues in St. Paul, of which there are many. He references business closures, including the Alliance Bank Center, which recently gave tenants 48-hour notice to vacate. This building is one of many downtown real estate properties owned by Madison Equities. Nine properties in this portfolio are currently being marketed for sale, including the Alliance Bank building. I would hope that the St. Paul Downtown Alliance and Chamber of Commerce would work with the seller and buyers to ensure future owners are committed and able to maintain the properties in a way that benefits the tenants and the city, in addition to the owners.

Christine Chambers, Shoreview

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On March 19, our St. Paul City Council voted unanimously to block our Planning Commission’s decision to locate a garbage truck dispatch center at 560 Randolph Av. on the bluff of the Mississippi River: garage trucks with million-dollar views. The process of locating the garbage center was a backdoor deal negotiated by our Department of Public Works without input from our neighborhood council, the West 7th/Fort Road Federation-District 9 Community Council.

The council was informed only after the agreement was signed despite multiple efforts to engage in the process. With the city’s legal team at her side, Council Member Rebecca Noecker’s careful reason and elegant rationale supported our appeal to block the garbage transit center based upon a number of factors. At the council hearing 20+ citizens testified. One glaring presentation demonstrated that the city stood to lose more than $2 million per year in property tax revenue if the bluff site became industrial rather than residential. Another showed that industrial use conflicted with the Great River Passage Master Plan and our Comprehensive Plan that was adopted by the City Council in 2013 upon the recommendation of the Planning Commission.

Noecker further stated that trash collection is already underway without the Randolph location and will not be interrupted. However, Mayor Melvin Carter threatened the council and the neighborhood with an emergency declaration that has no merit, nor urgency.

Randolph Avenue at Shepard Road is a critical urban commercial, residential and transit node, the downtown of the West End. Perched on its bluff, it adjoins the historic Schmidt Brewery, on the National Register of Historic Places since 2018. Eighty garbage trucks daily in and out of our narrow corridor would not fit, especially when alternative industrial sites are available.

Joe Landsberger, St. Paul