White House official confirms Yemen strike plans were mistakenly texted to journalist

Top national security officials for U.S. President Donald Trump, including his defence secretary and vice-president, texted about war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday.

Brian Hughes, a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson, said the text chain "appears to be authentic and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain." 

Trump initially told reporters he was not aware that the sensitive information had been shared, two and a half hours after it was reported. He later appeared to joke about the breach.

The material in the text chain between Signal accounts that appear to belong to top Trump officials, including U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance, "contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing," editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.

It was not immediately clear if the specifics of the military operation were classified, but they often are and at the least are kept secure to protect service members and operational security. The U.S. has conducted airstrikes against the Houthis since the militant group began targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in November 2023.

Just two hours after Goldberg said he received the details of the attack on March 15, the U.S. began launching a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.

Hegseth in his first comments on the matter attacked Goldberg as "deceitful" and a "discredited so-called journalist" while alluding to previous critical reporting of Trump from the publication. He did not shed light on why Signal was being used to discuss the sensitive operation or how Goldberg ended up on the message chain.

"Nobody was texting war plans and that's all I have to say about that," Hegseth said in an exchange with reporters after landing in Hawaii on Monday as he began his first trip to the Indo-Pacific as defence secretary.

Goldberg responded to Hegseth's denial in an interview on CNN late on Monday by saying, "No, that's a lie. He was texting war plans."

In a statement late Monday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the president still has the "utmost confidence" in Waltz and the national security team.

Earlier Monday, Trump told reporters, "I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time." He added that The Atlantic was "not much of a magazine."

By early evening, the president jokingly brushed it aside. He amplified a social media posting from Elon Musk spotlighting a conservative satirical news site article with the cutting headline: "4D Chess: Trump Leaks War Plans to 'The Atlantic' Where No One Will Ever See Them."

Government officials have used Signal for organizational correspondence, but it is not classified and can be hacked. Privacy and tech experts say the popular end-to-end encrypted messaging and voice call app is more secure than conventional texting.