Why on earth were our nation’s leaders planning military actions in an emoji-laden group chat?
Today, The Atlantic‘s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, published one of the most incredible stories I’ve ever read — “incredible” in its original sense, meaning “something too extraordinary (or insane) to be believed.” The article’s headline sounds like clickbait, an exaggeration used to capture the reader’s attention: “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.”
But the headline is completely accurate. Honestly, it might undersell what happened. The whole story must be read, but I’ll include critical excerpts here. Goldberg wrote the article not as an editor, but as a firsthand witness. On Tuesday, March 11, Goldberg received a connection request on Signal from a user named “Michael Waltz.” (Michael Waltz is Trump’s national security adviser.) Goldberg, who had met Waltz in the past and has often written on national security matters, “didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me,” but “did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists — and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically.”
Goldberg could not have guessed what was coming next.
On Thursday, March 13, Goldberg received a notice that he was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”
This “Houthi PC small group” included other users who appeared to be high-ranking members of Trump’s cabinet, some whose names only appeared as initials. The chat included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (“Pete Hegseth”), Vice President JD Vance (“JD Vance”), Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio (“MAR”), CIA Director John Ratcliffe (“John Ratcliffe”), Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (“TG”), and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (“Scott B”).
Jeffrey Goldberg appeared on his screen only as “JG.”
After each member of the chat designated his or her best POC (Point of Contact) for the mission, the group launched into strategizing and planning strikes against the Houthis in Yemen as retribution for their terrorizing the Suez Canal. Goldberg could not believe his eyes; he imagined the dialogue might be an advanced disinformation campaign, some strange scheme to entrap him.
That was, until Pete Hegseth posted a lengthy “TEAM UPDATE” on Saturday, March 15, which detailed operations for a pending offensive.
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. 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. The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. “I will say a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)
Goldberg, up to this point, had been reasonably doubtful of the veracity of the Signal group chat. It would be absurd that U.S. national security top brass would have accidentally (or knowingly!) added one of the country’s leading journalists to a classified chat room — which is itself an oxymoron. Commercial messaging apps are never allowed to be the platforms for classified information. (All classified intel is required to be shared through government-specific software and hardware.)
However, world events were soon to confirm the authenticity of the “Houthi PC small group.”
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, stunned by the co-occurence, concluded that the group chat was real.
Having come to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours before, I removed myself from the Signal group, understanding that this would trigger an automatic notification to the group’s creator, “Michael Waltz,” that I had left. No one in the chat had seemed to notice that I was there. And I received no subsequent questions about why I left—or, more to the point, who I was.
Being a respectable and thorough journalist, Goldberg then reached out to members of the chat with questions. Primarily — “Is the ‘Houthi PC small group’ a genuine Signal thread? Did they know that I was included in this group? Was I (on the off chance) included on purpose? If not, who did they think I was?” Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, quickly responded to Goldberg and confirmed that the Signal group was, indeed, legit, and affirmed that his team “is reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
My pet hypothesis on the matter, which I’ve now seen pop up elsewhere on X, is that Waltz meant to add a different “JG” to the chat — U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. As they were planning an attack in response to the Houthis’ continued disruption of a major international trade route, the cabinet member focused on trade should probably be clued into the operation.
The million-dollar question has not yet been answered: How the heck did no one in the group recognize a foreign entity in the chat? How did Waltz manage to invite the wrong guy in the first place? And, ultimately, why on earth were our nation’s leaders planning military actions in an emoji-laden group chat?
Whatever happened exactly, this direct leak of top-secret military intel blows the Hillary laptop story out of the water. Poor Karoline Leavitt has her work cut out for her.