On Monday at noon, The Atlantic, a multi-platform magazine and website with in-depth articles on politics, business, culture, technology, and science, published a column that surely embarrassed several individuals in the Pentagon and the White House, and must have left the United States military very concerned.
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In the article signed by the editor-in-chief of the publication, Jeffrey Goldberg, and titled “The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans”, it recounts how a group of high-ranking officials from the current United States government made an unprecedented mistake and included the journalist in the secret chat about the attacks on Yemen.
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Just as it is read.
How did high-ranking Pentagon officials make this serious mistake?
According to the editor’s account, he was mistakenly included in a Signal messaging group where high-ranking officials from President Donald Trump’s government were discussing the operation against the Houthi forces in Yemen through this encrypted application.
It all started when Goldberg received an invitation through Signal - an open-source encrypted messaging app - from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Although he initially assumed it was the former Republican congressman and Trump’s national security advisor, he did not believe the request was genuine.
However, the situation changed drastically when he was added to a group titled “Houthi PC small group”, where precise details about an imminent attack in Yemen were being exchanged.
The group included no less than Vice President JD Vance; Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth; Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; and White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller.
Goldberg reported that on March 15, about two hours before the U.S. attack in Yemen was publicly confirmed, Hegseth shared the full military plan within the group. That information included “details about weapon packages, specific targets, and the bombing execution schedule,” explained Goldberg.
“I didn’t think it could be real, then the bombs started falling,” he wrote, alluding to the moment when he realized the conversation was authentic.
The editor wrote that “it is not uncommon for national security officials to communicate through Signal. But the application is mainly used for planning meetings and other logistical matters, not for detailed and highly confidential conversations about pending military action. And, of course, I have never heard of any case where a journalist has been invited to such a conversation.” Goldberg added that “the Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information.”
The Trump administration confirmed the leak
The Atlantic contacted the National Security Council spokesperson, Brian Hughes, who confirmed the authenticity of the conversation: “It appears to be an authentic chain of messages, and we are reviewing how a number was mistakenly added.”
He also stated that “the conversation demonstrates a deep and thoughtful coordination of policies among high-ranking officials.”