Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s secretary of defense, inadvertently included the top editor of The Atlantic in a Signal text chat group revealing the U.S.’s attack plans on Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month, according to the magazine.
The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported in a nearly 3,500-word story published Monday that the most senior national-security leaders of the United States included him in a group chat on Signal about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. “I didn’t think it could be real,” he wrote. “Then the bombs started falling.”
More from Variety
According to Goldberg’s report, he received a connection request on Signal, an open-source encrypted messaging app, from a user identified as Michael Waltz. “I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz,” Goldberg wrote.
In the story, Goldberg detailed how the same user later added him to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group” (or principals committee), with contacts who appeared to be most of the Trump administration’s national-security leaders, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
On March 15, about two hours before America’s bombing in Yemen became publicly known, Hegseth — a former host on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend” — texted the Signal group the war plan, which included “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing,” Goldberg wrote.
“I have never seen a breach quite like this,” Goldberg wrote. “It is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal. But the app is used primarily for meeting planning and other logistical matters — not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action. And, of course, I’ve never heard of an instance in which a journalist has been invited to such a discussion.”
According to the Atlantic, the veracity of the messaging group was confirmed by Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “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.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Jeffrey Goldberg, Michael Waltz, President Trump, national-security, national security adviser, Houthi rebels, The Atlantic, Pete Hegseth, group chat, secretary of defense
#Didnt #Real #Editor