Today, Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he’d accidentally been added to a Signal group chat with senior members of the Trump administration as they discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Goldberg describes his confusion, disbelief, and then complete shock as he found himself in a text thread with Vice President JD Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and others.
In the chat, the group talks openly about details Goldberg says involved classified national security matters relating to the administration’s attack earlier this month.
“At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled ‘Pete Hegseth’ posted in Signal a ‘TEAM UPDATE.’ I will not quote from this update … 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.
“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.”
In the chat, members of the Trump administration also spoke candidly about U.S. allies, bashing European Union members.
“If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,” Vance reportedly wrote.
Internet reacts to the Trump administration Signal leak
Readers of the news were shocked that government officials were conducting war plans on an unauthorized communications network, utilizing a tool that could circumvent public records laws. In the piece, Goldberg also notes some of the chats were set to disappear, another likely violation of federal law.
In response, press officials with the adminstration confirmed the veracity of the chat.
“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” a National Security Council spokesperson told the Atlantic.
That the shocking news was brushed off by the Trump administration led users online to resurface old posts of members of the group chat. In them, they vehemently decreed national security lapses by Democrats and leaks from the intelligence community.
“Biden’s sitting National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sent Top Secret messages to Hillary Clinton’s private account. And what did DOJ do about it? Not a damn thing,” Waltz wrote, sharing an article from 2016.
Biden’s sitting National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sent Top Secret messages to Hillary Clinton’s private account.
— Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) June 12, 2023
And what did DOJ do about it? Not a damn thing. https://t.co/VJCx9Zritn.
In response, posters shared images published by the Atlantic of the group chat.
“Any recommendations for DOJ on you and Hegseth sending top secret messages to @JeffreyGoldberg?” asked one person.
Another post from Gabbard was also flagged, where she bashed leaks out of the intelligence community.
“Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such,” she wrote in a thread just this month.
“hey girl hey, just checking to see what you’ll be doing about this?” one person quoted the tweet, sharing another image of the group chat.
While people online were aghast at the news, when asked about the matter, President Donald Trump denied he knew anything about the story.
But he also took a moment to bash the Atlantic, saying “I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic. It’s a magazine that’s going out of business.”
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