From left: U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz at the White House on March 13.MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
In a major security blunder, senior members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet mistakenly added a well known journalist to a Signal chat group that discussed detailed plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen and was critical of Europe’s military capabilities.
The breach was confirmed by the White House Monday afternoon, after the Atlantic magazine published an account of the incident. The war plans resulted in U.S. strikes against the Houthis a week ago, reportedly killing 53 people. Mr. Trump said the “decisive and powerful” strikes were designed to stop the Houthis, who are sympathetic to the Palestinians, from attacking Red Sea shipping.
The Signal chat was confirmed by Brian Hughes, spokesman for the National Security Council, which is part of the executive council of the U.S. President’s office. “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” he said.
The number belonged to The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, whose article entitled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans” was published early Monday afternoon. At first, he thought the chat group was phony, then realized the messages contained “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
Those in the group included Vice-President JD Vance, White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, CIA director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to Mr. Goldberg’s 3,500-word report. Mr. Goldberg said he removed some sensitive material from his Atlantic report, including operational details and the identity of a senior CIA officer who was in the group.
President Donald Trump said Monday he knows 'nothing' about his top national security officials inadvertently texting war plans about upcoming military strikes on Yemen to a group in a secure messaging app that included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief.
The Associated Press
The Atlantic article published excerpts from the chat, including messages that appeared disparaging of Europe, which Mr. Trump has often criticized as getting a near-free ride on lavish U.S. defence spending, some of which funds the protection of shipping lanes crucial to the health of the European economy.
At one point, Mr. Vance said “If we should do it, let’s go,” referring to the attack. “I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
Mr. Hegseth responded, “VP, I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
What to know about Signal, the messaging app Trump aides used to share war plans
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Simon Smith, associate professor of security at the Royal Danish Defence College and editor-in-chief of the Defence Studies journal, said that the security breach will add tension to transatlantic relations as Mr. Trump distances the U.S. from the European Union and remains critical of relatively low defence spending among its member states. “This is more proof that there is contempt for the Europeans,” Mr. Smith said.
One member of the Signal chat group, identified as “SM,” presumably Mr. Trump’s White House confidant Stephen Miller, asked, “if Europe does not remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom navigation at great cost, there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
He was apparently referring to the expense of destroying Houthi missile sites in the attempt to prevent more attacks on the Red Sea shipping corridor, which reaches the Suez Canal in Egypt.
Mr. Smith said the comments display the “transactional” nature of the White House’s foreign policy stand with the EU.
Some Democrat members of the U.S. Congress were outraged by the security breach and called for an investigation on how a Signal chat group could be used to share classified information that could potentially be exposed in a phone hack.
“Amateur hour,” Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Marine veteran, wrote on X. “These are the geniuses that are also selling out Ukraine and destroying our alliances all around the world. No wonder Putin is embarrassing them at the negotiation table.”
New York Congressman Pat Ryan, an Army veteran and Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee, wrote on X, ”If House Republicans won’t hold a hearing on how this happened IMMEDIATELY, I’ll do it my damn self.”
In his article, Mr. Goldberg noted that Mr. Trump, “as a candidate for president (and as president), repeatedly and vociferously demanded that Hillary Clinton be imprisoned for using a private email server for official business when she was secretary of state.”
Mr. Trump on Monday said he was unaware of the security breach until it was exposed by The Atlantic. “I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time,” he said at a news conference.
With a report from Samantha Edwards in Washington.