US cabinet officials accidentally add journalist to group chat, share war plans
Trump adviser Mike Waltz inexplicably includes The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in encrypted messaging chat to plan bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen
Trump administration officials earlier this month accidentally added the editor of The Atlantic magazine to an encrypted group chat, in which they discussed highly sensitive plans for the military to strike Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The incident was made public on Monday, in an article by Jeffrey Goldberg, who was included in the chat. The US National Security Council confirmed the messages appeared to be authentic, and said it was investigating how Goldberg was inadvertently added.
The group, on the Signal messaging app, included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, and 12 other officials.
US President Donald Trump, asked Monday about the story, was apparently unfamiliar with it, and said he was “not a big fan of The Atlantic,” and that the leak must not have caused problems, because the attacks were successful.
The officials used the chat — to which Goldberg was added, for reasons unclear, on March 13 — to debate the merits of striking the Houthis and how to present the attacks to the public.
Hegseth, according to the texts, was worried that Israel would hit the Houthis first.
As part of the chat, Goldberg received, some two hours before the bombing began on March 15, a “plan [that] included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
That post, sent to the group by Hegseth at 11:44 a.m., “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” Goldberg wrote.
The plans were sent to the group following a lengthy discussion between the vice president, the defense secretary, and a user identified as “S M” — presumably Trump confidant Stephen Miller — in which Vance complained about “bailing Europe out again” and insisted that “messaging [be] tight” and that risks to Saudi oil facilities be mitigated.
They were followed up with confirmation that the strikes had been successful, and a series of congratulatory messages, and celebratory emojis, from the various cabinet officials.
On Sunday, Goldberg exited the group, triggering a notice to the group’s creator, Waltz. No one from the group reached out to him about the situation, however, and it was not until he emailed Waltz and sent him a message on Signal that NSC Spokesman Brian Hughes reached out to Goldberg to confirm the veracity of the chat.
BREAKING
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was accidentally included in a Signal group chat with top Trump administration officials, where top-secret war plans related to Yemen were shared.
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— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) March 24, 2025
“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes wrote.
“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 troops or national security,” he added.
National security lawyers interviewed by The Atlantic said that sharing classified information over Signal — a commercial messaging app known for its encryption, and, according to the magazine, used by national security officials for lower-level purposes such as scheduling — was unheard of and potentially illegal.
In addition, Waltz set some of the messages to disappear after one week, and others to disappear after four, raising questions about whether the messages were records that the government is obligated to preserve.
The US launched military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on March 15 over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, and have continued airstrikes against the group in the weeks since, as the Houthis have claimed to fire at American warships.
The Houthis — whose slogan is “God is the greatest, death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam,” and who control much of Yemen, but are at war with the country’s internationally recognized government — have fired six missiles at Israel in the past week, all of which have been intercepted and none of which have caused any injuries or deaths.
The Houthis began attacking the ships in the Red Sea in November 2023, a month after fellow Iran-backed group Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
While the Houthis have said they were attacking Israeli-linked shipping in support of Gaza, they have also targeted vessels with no known Israeli connections.
They stopped their attacks on Israel while the hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza, reached in January, was in effect, and resumed launching missiles in response to Israel’s renewed offensive there.
JTA contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.