Top Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, revealed secret military plans in a group chat on the Signal app to which a journalist from The Atlantic was mistakenly added, the White House said on Monday, the 24th of March, after The Atlantic first reported on it, according to Reuters and the BBC.
Democratic lawmakers immediately condemned the mistake, saying it was a violation of US national security and the violation of the law, which should be investigated by Congress.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported in an article on Monday that on the 13th of March he was unexpectedly invited to join an encrypted chat group on the Signal app called “Houthi PC small group”.
Goldberg said that he appeared to have been added to the group by White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. In this group, Waltz instructed his deputy, Alex Wong, to set up a “tiger team” to coordinate US action against the Houthis.
“If they picked the wrong number, at least it wasn’t somebody who was supporting the Houthis, because they were actually passing information that I think could have put the lives of American service members who were involved in that operation at risk,” he said in an interview with PBS.
He initially wondered whether the chat messages might be fake, until he checked X on the 15th of March for updates on Yemen and saw reports of bombings in the capital Sana’a.
On the 15th of March, US President Donald Trump launched a large-scale military strike campaign against the Yemeni Houthis as the group attacked ships in the Red Sea and he warned Iran, the main backer of the Houthis, that it must immediately stop supporting the group.
A few hours before the attacks began, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details of the plan on the group, “including information on the targets, the weapons the US will use, and the sequence of attacks”, Goldberg wrote.
His report did not mention these details, but Goldberg called it a “shockingly reckless” use of the chat.
Goldberg reported that the 18-person chat room contained several accounts that appeared to belong to cabinet members and national security officials, including Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, as well as senior National Security Council officials, Goldberg wrote.
Trump’s nominee for Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Joe Kent, was also on the chat, although he has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he was not aware of the incident.
“I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic,” Trump said. Later, a White House official said that an investigation was under way and that Trump was aware of it.
“The attacks on the Houthis have been very successful and effective,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump continues to have full confidence in his national security team, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.”
Hegseth criticised Goldberg as a “cunning and highly discredited” journalist and resisted questions about the content of the reports and denied sharing war plans in a group chat.
“Nobody has sent messages of war plans, and that’s all I’ll say about that,” he told reporters on Monday. But Goldberg said Hegseth was lying.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, said the breach was a mistake, but said the chat showed that “senior officials are doing their job and doing it well”.
Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation, calling the episode a national security scandal.
“This is one of the most spectacular military intelligence breaches we’ve heard about in a long time,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said his committee plans to investigate the case.
“It’s certainly a concern,” he added. “It appears that mistakes have been made.”
Under US law, the mishandling, misuse or abuse of classified information can be considered a crime, but it is not clear whether those rules have been broken in this case.
The messages, which Waltz had set to disappear from the Signal app after a period of time, according to the Atlantic report, also raise questions about possible violations of federal data retention laws.
In the context of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on officials disclosing information to journalists, prior to reports of the incident and unrelated to the Signal chat, Gabbard wrote on the 14th of March on X that any “unauthorised disclosure of classified information is a violation of law and will be treated as such”.
Messages about “pathetic” Europe
Goldberg reported that officials also discussed the possibility of Europe paying for the US protection of key shipping lanes.
“Whether it happens now or in a few weeks, the US will have to open these shipping lanes,” account connected to Waltz wrote on the 14th of March. The message went on to say that at Trump’s request, his team is working with the Department of Defence and the State Department “to determine how to collect the costs and levy them on the Europeans”.
Vance complained that Europe would benefit without paying for it, adding that “I just hate to bail Europe out again”.
The user, identified as Hegseth, replied three minutes later: “VP: I totally share your loathing of Europe free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
⚡️It’s a bombshell: a journalist was accidentally added to Trump team’s secret chat
Trump’s national security adviser Michael Waltz accidentally added an editor from The Atlantic to a secret Signal group chat where confidential operations were being discussed — including planned… pic.twitter.com/ArwofDcwPq
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 24, 2025