US officials share war plans with journalist in group chat

What happened

A group of top Trump administration officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed detailed operational plans on striking Yemen in a group text conversation on Signal, Jeffrey Goldberg said at The Atlantic Monday.

Goldberg, the magazine's editor in chief, said he knew about the secret group chat because he was added to the conversation, presumably by accident, by national security adviser Michael Waltz.

Who said what

The White House is "reviewing how an inadvertent number was added" to what "appears to be an authentic message chain," National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said. "I don't know anything about it," President Donald Trump told reporters. "You're telling me about it for the first time."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Hegseth criticized Goldberg and insisted that "nobody was texting war plans." Hegesth "can say that it wasn't a war plan," Goldberg replied on MSNBC, "but it was a minute-by-minute accounting of what was about to happen," including "precise details" like targets and weapons.

Discussing "sensitive war plans" on a "publicly available encrypted messaging service" was an "extraordinary" and "mind-boggling security breach" that highlighted the Trump team's "lax handling of America's secrets," Axios said. "Well, somebody f--ked up," said Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.). "Heads should roll," Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) told Axios.

What next?

Goldberg's revelations "triggered furious discussion inside the White House" that Waltz "may need to be forced out," Politico said, though Trump will "ultimately make the decision" as he "watches coverage of the embarrassing episode." Two people on the chat, Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, will face questions on the breach when they appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday and House Intelligence Committee Wednesday.