Jewish-American editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, thought someone was making fun of him when he was suddenly added to a secret chat group, along with what appeared to be the top US political leadership.
However, he soon realized that the chat group was real and he witnessed the powers-that-be discussing a secret military operation against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance reportedly discussed details of a sensitive bombing operation against Houthi targets in Yemen in an encrypted Signal chat – which inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg. The editor-in-chief revealed this himself in an article published Monday, while a Cabinet meeting was underway at the White House.
According to Goldberg, on March 11, he was added to a Signal group of 18 participants by a user who identified himself as national security adviser Mike Waltz. The group, titled “Houthi PC small group,” included profiles that appeared to belong to Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hetseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Initially, Goldberg was skeptical, thinking at first that he had been the victim of some kind of disinformation campaign.
– I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans, he explains.
On March 14, participants began discussing the exact timing of the military operation.
“Hate bailing Europe out again”
“I think we are making a mistake”, wrote a user named JD Vance, arguing that Europe benefits more from the attacks than the US.
“3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message”, he continued.
Vance added, however, that he was willing to agree to support the plans if the others were in favor of an attack – but added that he is “not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now” and pointed to the risk of increased oil prices.
Security adviser Mike Waltz also declared that it will be the Europeans who will pay for the attacks, and Vance expressed that he “just hate bailing Europe out again”.
“I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC”, Hegseth replied.
White House confirms miss
On March 15 at 1:45 p.m. ET (according to Hegseth’s message in the chats), attacks also began against the Houthi rebels. Goldberg described checking social media at 1:55 p.m. and seeing reports of explosions in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. The chat feed then featured congratulatory messages from Mike Waltz and others.
The existence of the secret chat group was real, Goldberg said, and he had apparently been invited by mistake, without any close scrutiny and without any of the top security officials seeming to realize he was even there. He also states that a large amount of highly sensitive information was disseminated in the group, but that he himself does not want to publish it further for US security reasons.
Shortly after the attacks, Goldberg left the chat – and on the same day, Donald Trump declared on his Truth Social platform that he had “ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen”.
The White House has confirmed that an outside user was accidentally added to the secret chat group – but not why covert military operations and decisions were discussed in such an uncertain and casual manner.
According to the US National Security Council (NSC), the messages appear to be “authentic” but the chat group posed “no threats to our service members or our national security”.
“Stunning carelessness”
At a press conference, Trump dismissed knowledge of the incident – and instead pointed out that he did not like The Atlantic newspaper. His press secretary also emphasized that the president has full confidence in his security team.
Democratic Senator Jack Reed is not as impressed, calling it “one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen” – and calling for an immediate investigation.
– Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line. The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is stunning and dangerous, he continued in a statement.
Nebraska Republican Don Bacon is also highly critical, saying it is deeply problematic that the security team does not even appear to have used secure phones or been protected from outside interception.
Goldberg also stated that Waltz set up for some messages to be deleted after one and four weeks respectively – a potential violation of law since federal rules require the archiving of official documents.
Others are more skeptical about the scandal, arguing that it is highly unlikely that a complete outsider – and a journalist at that – would be invited to a group like this by mistake. Instead, they speculate that the intention from the outset was for the information to get out – though it is unclear why.
