By Reagan Reese, Daily Caller News Foundation | March 24, 2025
The White House confirmed to the Daily Caller on Monday that President Donald Trump’s national security team accidentally leaked war plans to The Atlantic in a group chat.
The Atlantic Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a piece on Monday detailing how he had been accidentally included in group chat with cabinet officials on Signal, a secure messaging platform used by politicians and journalists. Officials the editor-in-chief identified or inferred were present included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, State Secretary Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President J.D. Vance.
In the chat titled “Houthi PC small group,” the cabinet officials discussed bombing the Houthis, and Hegseth shared the military’s plans to carry out its attack, according to Goldberg, who said he had been accidentally included in the chat by Waltz.
“At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled ‘Pete Hegseth’ posted in Signal a ‘TEAM UPDATE.’ I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility,” Goldberg wrote of a March 15 message he said he received.
“What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” he continued.
“According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 p.m. eastern time. So I waited in my car in a supermarket parking lot. If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city,” Goldberg’s article added.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told the Caller that at the time of publication they believed the messages were authentic and that they were investigating how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.
“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 our service members or our national security,” Hughes said in a statement provided to the Caller.
President Donald Trump said he was unaware of the story and the apparent leak of the war plans. Goldberg notes that he chose to leave the group chat on March 15, after the attacks on the Houthis were carried out, seemingly notifying Waltz that he had seen the messages.
“I don’t know anything about it, I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic … you’re saying that they had what?” Trump said on Monday after announcing a new infrastructure investment.
“You’re telling me about it for the first time,” Trump added.
Prior to Hegseth sending the war plans to attack the Houthis, the cabinet officials weighed the action, according to Goldberg. An account identified by the editor-in-chief as Vance pushed back on the planned action, arguing that the administration may need more time to convince the American people and that the move would contradict Trump’s recent streak of toughness on Europe.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc,” Vance wrote, according to Goldberg.
The vice president’s office provided a statement to the Caller, stressing that Trump and Vance are in lockstep.
“The Vice President’s first priority is always making sure that the President’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations,” Will Martin, Vance’s communications director, told the Caller. “Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.”
The accounts identified as Hegseth, Waltz and Miller all weighed in before the cabinet decided to move forward with the plans, according to Goldberg. After Hegseth briefed the chat on the plans, Waltz provided an update which prompted the rest of the group to celebrate the attack, he wrote.
“John Ratcliffe” wrote, “A good start,” according to The Atlantic, before Waltz sent a string of emojis: a fist, the American flag and a flame.
“Good Job Pete and your team!!,” a user deemed “MAR,” (who the Atlantic infers suggests was Marco Antonio Rubio) and a “Susie Wiles,” messaged, “Kudos to all — most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless,” Goldberg wrote.
Regan Reese is a white house correspondent at the Daily Caller News Foundation
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