IN a clear breach of United States (US) security, President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, shared war plans in a messaging group that included a journalist days before the US attacked Houthis in Yemen.
This was revealed on Monday in a first-person account by the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who was erroneously added to an encrypted Signal chat group on March 13.
The group, named “Houthi PC small group,” included national security adviser Mike Waltz, who instructed his deputy, Alex Wong, to assemble a “tiger team” to coordinate US actions against the Houthis.
Goldberg wrote that the group chat included accounts seemingly representing Vice President JD Vance; US Secretary of State Marco Rubio; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; and senior National Security Council officials.
The ICIR reports that on March 15, Trump launched a military onslaught against Yemen’s Houthis in response to its attacks on Red Sea shipping, and he issued a warning to Iran, the Houthis’ primary supporter, demanding an immediate end to its backing of the group.
Goldberg revealed that just hours before the attacks, the US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared operational details in the messaging group “including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
While noting that messages were set by Waltz to disappear from the Signal app after a while, Goldberg described the use of a Signal chat for such sensitive information as “shockingly reckless.”
The screenshots of the chat, as reported by The Atlantic, revealed that officials in the group debated whether the US should proceed with the strikes. At one point, Vance appeared to question whether US allies in Europe, who are more vulnerable to shipping disruptions in the region, truly deserved US assistance.
“@PeteHegseth if you think we should do it, let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,” a person identified in the group as Vance wrote, adding: “Let’s just make sure our messaging is tight here.”
A person identified as Hegseth replied: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
The Atlantic reported that the individual identified as Vance also expressed concerns about the timing of the strikes, suggesting there was a strong case for delaying them by a month.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices,” the account wrote, before saying he was willing to support the group’s consensus.
While the discussions were ongoing for days, Goldberg (the journalist) had doubted the platform was genuine because he could not believe that classified information such as national security, including war plans, could be discussed by officials on Signal.
He had thought the discussions were AI-generated and had presumed they were misinformation by some criminals attempting to masquerade as security experts.
But he eventually realised that they were genuine after discovering that the attacks on Yemen were applauded on the platform and the time of the bombardments tallied with discussions on the platform. He thereafter exited the group.
He then emailed most of the officials and demanded to know why he was added to the group and why sensitive information such as war plans could be discussed on the app.
Some of the officials responded and confirmed he was added in error.
All lawyers interviewed by The Atlantic over the issue condemned the officials’ actions.
Responding, Trump told reporters on Monday that he was unaware of the incident, stating, “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic.” However, a White House official later confirmed that an investigation was underway and that Trump had been briefed on the matter.
The United States National Security Council spokesperson, Brian Hughes, said in a statement: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our service members or our national security.”
However, Hegseth denied sharing war plans in the group chat.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” he told reporters on Monday.
Goldberg responded to Hegseth’s denial in an interview on CNN late on Monday by saying, “No, that’s a lie. He was texting war plans.”
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.