Magazine editor ‘accidentally’ included in Trump team’s war group chat
A US magazine editor appears to have been sent sensitive military plans after President Donald Trump’s national security team accidentally included him in their group chat.
The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, said he was added to the chat on the Signal messaging app on March 13.
The group appeared to include cabinet secretaries and top aides, including Vice-President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz.
A day after Goldberg was added, the group began sharing information about plans for a military operation against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel group.
The stunning revelations have been laid out in an article by Goldberg titled The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.
After the attacks, officials shared congratulatory messages, according to The Atlantic.
They raise major questions about the administration’s handling of classified information and compliance with security protocols. Defence experts say transmitting classified information on an app like Signal could be a breach of the Espionage Act.
Members of the group shared information including air-strike targets and timing. The name of an active CIA intelligence officer, usually kept confidential, was also shared.
“I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans,” Goldberg wrote.
“I also 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.”
A US attack on Houthi targets went ahead on March 15.
The ABC has confirmed the authenticity of the group chat with the White House’s National Security Council.
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement.
Messages published by The Atlantic show JD Vance and Pete Hegseth complaining about Europe.
But Mr Hegseth later attacked Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist”. Asked how a journalist could have been privy to specific details of the military operation, including about weapons and targets, Mr Hegseth said: “I’ve heard how it was characterised. Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
Jack Reed, the most senior Democrat on the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee, said the story, if true, “represents one of the most egregious failures of operational national security and common sense I have ever seen”.
“Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line.”
Mr Trump was asked about the Atlantic story during a media conference shortly after it was published.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he said, before criticising The Atlantic as “a magazine that’s going out of business”.
“You’re telling me about it [the story] for the first time,” he told reporters.
Republican congressman Mike Lawler posted 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.”
Goldberg wrote that he was added to the group chat, which was called the “Houthi PC small group”, two days after receiving a connection request from a Signal user with the name Michael Waltz.
At the time, he was sceptical it was the national security adviser with that name, and he suspected the subsequent messages could have been falsified as part of a disinformation campaign.
During the message exchange, an account under Mr Vance’s name raised concerns that the military operation could be a mistake and should be delayed for a month.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” the vice-president wrote to the group, according to the Atlantic report.
“There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.”
Mr Hughes said the group chat was “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 our service-members or our national security,” he said.
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