The editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, disclosed on Monday that President Donald Trump’s national security team included him in a confidential discussion regarding military strikes in Yemen.
The conversation was initiated by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Signal, a secure messaging application. Participants in the chat were identified as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
A CIA representative, Trump adviser Stephen Miller and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles were also listed in the group.
Goldberg, a longtime Washington D.C. journalist, found himself added to the conversation.
‘It is important to note that I have never been formally invited to attend a White House principals-committee meeting. Throughout my extensive experience reporting on national security issues, I had never encountered a situation where such a meeting was conducted through a non-official messaging platform,’ Goldberg stated in his article for The Atlantic.
The shocking story shows operational details were unwittingly revealed. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, is now under the microscope over the egregious failing.
Goldberg noted that ‘Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m.’ The bombs started dropping in Yemen around 2 p.m.
President Donald Trump in a Cabinet meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Goldberg outlined the bizarre tale, where he first expressed disbelief about the text chain, questioned whether or not it was real and then realized it was genuine when ‘the bombs started falling.’
He admits he ‘could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president.’
He appeared as ‘JG’ in the chat. It’s unclear who Waltz meant to add but Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative, has the same initials, sparking speculation it was meant to be him.
Goldberg didn’t disclose all the information on the chat, citing national security concerns.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The National Security Council confirmed the chat was authentic.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters at her daily briefing: ‘We will not comment, and you should contact the White House.’
If true, it is an astonishing security breach.
Trump ordered the strikes against the Iran-backed rebels in Yemen as a warning to Tehran. The Houthi rebels were targeting ships on the Red Sea from countries with ties to Israel, including the U.S. and UK.
Waltz started the principles group on Signal to coordinate on it, naming it ‘Houthi PC small group.’
Goldberg had his doubts when he found himself added, admitting he was worried that the text chain was a ‘disinformation operation.’
But he also found, as he watched the texts flow, that the statements in it sounded genuine and some of the details matched up. For example, the account labeled Vance texted he would miss a meeting because he would be in Michigan for an economic event. And, indeed, the vice president was in Michigan on the day in question.
Vance also expressed his doubts about the operation.
‘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,’ Vance wrote.
‘I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.’
Hegseth responded he understood: ‘VP: I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS. Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc). I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what.’
After some discussion, Vance concedes: ‘If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.’
The Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg was included in a Trump administration chat on national security issues
Vice President JD Vance (left) and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (right) were among the officials in the group chat
Goldberg, watching the exchange play out on his Signal app, admitted he was ‘mystified that no one in the group seemed to have noticed my presence.’
He also writes he voluntarily held back information that was in a lengthy text written by Hegseth because if it ‘had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel.’
‘What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,’ Goldberg added.
The principles on the chat responded to Hegseth, however.
‘I will say a prayer for victory,’ Vance wrote.
‘Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji,’ Goldberg notes.
Realizing if the chat was real, bombs would begin to hit targets in Yemen at 1:45 pm ET, Goldberg ‘waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot.’
‘If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.’
The chat was started by Trump National Security Adviser Mike Waltz
President Donald Trump looks on as military strikes are launched against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis earlier this month
Smoke plumes rise above buildings following bombardment on Yemen’s Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa after the U.S. strikes
Goldberg returned to the group chat were he found a flurry of emojis and congratulations flying throughout the text chain.
Waltz responded with three emoji, he noted: a fist, an American flag, and fire.
Susie Wiles wrote: ‘Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless.’
Steve Witkoff added five emoji: two hands-praying, a flexed bicep, and two American flags.
Goldberg wrote he voluntarily left the group chat and promptly contacted the figures in it to ask about it.
Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded to him, confirming the chat was real.
‘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.’
Criticism of the Trump administration figures has started pouring in, with questions being raised about why top secret security matters were being discussed on a messaging app.
‘I’ve accidentally send the wrong person a text. We all have. The unconscionable action was sending this info over non-secure networks. None of this should have been sent on non-secure systems,’ Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said.
‘Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone,’ he added, referring to Hegseth.
And Republican Rep. Mike Lawler wrote on X: ‘Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels — and certainly not to those without security clearances, including reporters. Period. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure this never happens again.’
Another reporter at The Atlantic reached out to several national security lawyers to ask about the situation.
Their conclusion was Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of ‘national defense’ information.
The lawyers agreed the signal group should not have been established in the first place. The government has its own communications systems for classified information to be shared.
Officials are supposed to discuss classified information in a SCIF – most Cabinet-level national-security officials have one installed in their home – or communicate only on approved government equipment.
Also the officials may have violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires all presidential records to be preserved. Texts on Signal disappear after a set amount of time.
Trump, as a presidential candidate, repeatedly demanded that Hillary Clinton be imprisoned for using a private email server for official business when she was secretary of state.
‘Lock her up,’ he said over and over again.
