United States: Media reports showed that Trump administration officials sent through a group messaging application future missile strike plans against Houthis to the editor of The Atlantic.
The National Security Council declared that the discovered text messages exist authentically.
More about the news
The Editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, stated that the material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” euronews.com reported.
The operational details technically belonged to classified status, although such information normally receives security protection, which shields troop safety and military operational procedures.
Since November 2023, the US launched strikes against the Houthis after they started their attacks on ships in the Red Sea area.
BREAKING:
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) March 25, 2025
🇺🇲🇾🇪🇮🇱 After being caught planning an attack on Yemen in a private chat, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth clarified that no one within the Trump administration was texting about war plans.
The US is attacking the Houthis in Yemen in order to protect the israeli… pic.twitter.com/9hfSecRuQB
The US military initiated airstrikes against Houthi positions in Yemen barely two hours following the moment Goldberg received the strike details on March 15.
Statement released by the National Security Council
The National Security Council released a statement to investigate the process through which a journalist received access to the Signal group chat.
The Signal app serves governmental officials for official team communication, but the exchanged material does not receive classified status.
End-to-end encryption experts, along with privacy specialists, describe Signal as establishing a more secure text and voice transmission environment than traditional messaging platforms.
During the time when Hegseth’s office implemented new measures against sensitive information leaks despite warning troops about polygraphs for reporting methods, the disclosure to journalists took place.
United States President Donald Trump's top officials talked about war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen in a group chat where the editor-in-chief of a local magazine has been inadvertently added. READ: https://t.co/c2aCiwHXrw pic.twitter.com/ulAar1HSs8
— PhilSTAR L!fe (@philstarlife) March 25, 2025
While discussing the matter publicly for the first time, Henderson Hegseth accused Jeffrey Goldberg of being “deceitful” with a “so-called journalist status” and criticized him for his past Trump-related reporting at The Atlantic.
He did not explain the reasons Signal was selected to exchange sensitive operation information nor how Goldberg joined the chat system.
Furthermore, “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” as Hegseth stated in an exchange with reporters after landing in Hawaii on Monday when he began his first trip to the Indo-Pacific as defense secretary.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt emphasized through a statement on Monday that President Donald Trump maintains his complete trust in Waltz and his national security team.