You've got mail Trump administration accidentally texted secret bombing plans to a reporter "Shocking recklessness" in leak of detailed Yemen bombing plan in Signal chat. Jon Brodkin Mar 24, 2025 4:43 pm | 78 Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) speaks to reporters after a presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the Georgia Institute of Technology campus on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Credit: Getty Images | Andrew Harnik Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) speaks to reporters after a presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the Georgia Institute of Technology campus on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Credit: Getty Images | Andrew Harnik Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA prominent journalist knew the US military would start bombing Houthi targets in Yemen two hours before it happened on March 15 because top Trump administration officials accidentally included the reporter on a Signal text chain in which they discussed the war plan.Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, described the surprising leak of sensitive military information in an article today. The National Security Council confirmed that the messages were real and said it is investigating how Goldberg was added to a thread in which the war information was discussed."The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen," Goldberg wrote. "I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing."Goldberg's article quotes numerous messages that appeared to come from Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth, and other Trump administration officials. Goldberg was first added to the text chain on March 11 by Michael Waltz, Trump's national security adviser.Goldberg initially "didn't find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me," though he considered that "someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me." But over the next few days, Goldberg became increasingly convinced that the messages were authentic.Vance: I just hate bailing Europe out againThe text chat was labeled "Houthi PC small group," and a message from Waltz indicated that he was convening a principals committee for top officials to discuss plans."I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans," Goldberg wrote. "I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior US officials, up to and including the vice president."Using Signal in this way may have violated US law, Goldberg wrote. "Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of 'national defense' information, according to several national-security lawyers interviewed by my colleague Shane Harris for this story," he wrote.Signal is not an authorized venue for sharing such information, and Waltz's use of a feature that makes messages disappear after a set period of time "raises questions about whether the officials may have violated federal records law," the article said. Adding a reporter to the thread "created new security and legal issues" by transmitting information to someone who wasn't authorized to see it, "the classic definition of a leak, even if it was unintentional," Goldberg wrote.The account labeled "JD Vance" questioned the war plan in a Signal message on March 14. "I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now," the message said. "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."The Vance account also stated, "3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does," and "I just hate bailing Europe out again." The Hegseth account responded that "I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It's PATHETIC," but added that "we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this."An account apparently belonging to Trump advisor Stephen Miller wrote, "As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn't remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return."Shocking recklessnessGoldberg was mostly convinced that the text chain was real before the detailed war plans were sent. "After reading this chain, I recognized that this conversation possessed a high degree of verisimilitude," Goldberg wrote. "The texts, in their word choice and arguments, sounded as if they were written by the people who purportedly sent them, or by a particularly adept AI text generator. I was still concerned that this could be a disinformation operation, or a simulation of some sort. And I remained mystified that no one in the group seemed to have noticed my presence. But if it was a hoax, the quality of mimicry and the level of foreign-policy insight were impressive."Goldberg declined to directly quote from the Hesgeth message containing war plans. "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 US would be deploying, and attack sequencing."The Vance account responded, "I will say a prayer for victory," and two other users posted prayer emoji, according to Goldberg. Shortly after the bombings, Waltz posted in the Signal chat that the operation was a success, and several members of the group responded positively."The Signal chat group, I concluded, was almost certainly real," Goldberg wrote. He removed himself from the group and contacted administration officials about the information leak.NSC reviewing how inadvertent number was addedArs contacted the White House today, and we quickly received a response containing two statements about the Goldberg incident. The statements are the same as those included in The Atlantic article."This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," said a statement attributed to a National Security Council spokesperson. "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."The other statement came from a spokesperson for Vance. "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," the statement said. "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."According to Goldberg, The Atlantic spoke with several former US officials who said they used Signal to share unclassified information, but "they knew never to share classified or sensitive information on the app, because their phones could have been hacked by a foreign intelligence service.""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 mattersnot 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."Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 78 Comments