"No one texted war plans, and that is all I want to say about it," US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth stated on Monday in Hawaii in response to an article titled ‘The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.’
The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed that he was mistakenly added to a group chat on 11 March by Mike Waltz, the national security advisor to President Donald Trump.
The group included several national security team members, Defence Secretary Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance, and used the encrypted messaging service Signal.
In the chat group, Secretary Hegseth allegedly shared "operational details" about upcoming US attacks on Yemeni Houthi rebels set for 15 April. According to Goldberg, this included "information on targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of the attacks."
He warned that such information, if read by US adversaries, could have been used to harm US military and intelligence operations, particularly in the broader Middle East.
In the texts, there is clear resentment about Europe among top US officials. Vice-President JD Vance wrote in the group chat that he hates "bailing Europe again" – given that he claimed the strike and the unblocking of routes is most beneficial for Europeans.
Hegseth joins in along similar lines: "I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC." In the discussions, there is also talk of getting the costs of the Houthi strike back from Europe.
The White House has since officially confirmed the existence of the chat. Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, verified the authenticity of the Signal group.
Politico US also reported that while Secretary Hegseth does not deny the chat group’s existence, he fiercely criticised Goldberg.
He described him as a "deceptive and discredited so-called journalist who has made a career out of spreading hoaxes" and "a man peddling nonsense."
