President Trump’s top national security officials, including his Secretary of Defense, texted a group chat on a secure messaging app that includes top editors in Atlantic, a war plan for a military strike in Yemen, the magazine reported Monday.
The National Security Council said the text chain “looks like the real thing.”
Trump told reporters he didn’t know that sensitive information had been shared two and a half hours after it was reported.
The text chain material “contained operational details of upcoming strikes in Iran support, including information on targets, the weapons deployed by the US, and attack sequences,” Prime Minister Jeffrey Goldberg reported.
It was not immediately clear whether the details of the military operation were classified, but in many cases they are kept safe at least to protect service members and operational security. The US has been airstrikes against the Houssis since extremist groups began targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in November 2023.
Just two hours after Goldberg received the details, the US began launching a series of airstrikes on targets of Hooty in Yemen.
The National Security Council said in a statement it is looking into how journalist numbers were added to the chain through signal group chat.
Goldberg said he received a signal invitation from Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz.
In his first comment on the issue, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses attacked Goldberg as a “deceived” and “discredited journalist” without further explanation. He shed no light on why signals were used to discuss sensitive manipulation or how Goldberg turned to the message chain.
“No one had texted the war plan, so that’s all I have to say,” Heggs said in a conversation with reporters on his way to the Asia-Pacific region on his first overseas trip as defense secretary after landing in Hawaii on Monday.
In a statement later Monday, White House press chief Karoline Leavitt said the president still has “maximum confidence” in the waltz and the national security team.
Earlier on Monday, Trump told reporters, “I don’t know anything about it. You’re the first time you’re telling me about it.” He added that the Atlantic is “not a very magazine.”
By evening, the president jokingly pushed it aside. He amplified social media posts from advisor Elon Musk, and highlighted articles from a conservative satirical news site with the headline “4D Chess: Trump leaks war plans to the “Atlantic” where no one can see them.”
Government officials use signaling apps to respond to organizations, but are not classified and can be hacked. Privacy and technology experts say popular end-to-end encrypted messaging and voice call apps are more secure than traditional text messaging.
Sharing of confidential information occurs as Hegseth’s Office has just released sensitive information, including the potential use of polygraphs against defense personnel to determine how reporters received the information.
Hegseth spokesman Sean Parnell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on why the Secretary of Defense posted a war operational plan on an uncategorized app.
Violation of the protocol was quickly condemned by democratic lawmakers. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for a full investigation.
“This is one of the most spectacular violations of military information I’ve read for a very long time,” Schumer from New York said in a floor speech Monday afternoon.
“If that’s the case, this story represents one of the worst mistakes of operational security and common sense I’ve ever seen,” Sen. Jack Reid of Rhode Island, a top Democrat on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said in a statement.
He said American life is “on the line. The carelessness that Trump’s cabinet shows is surprisingly dangerous. I’m immediately looking for an answer from the administration.”
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himez, a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Election Committee, said in a statement he was “terrifying” by the report.
Himes said that if a subordinate official “doesn’t do what’s explained here, they’ll likely lose clearance and be subject to criminal investigations. Americans deserve the answer.”
Some Republicans also expressed concern.
“We’re so worried about it, we’ll look at it on a bipartisan basis,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, told reporters.
Senate majority leader John Toon said he wanted to know more about what happened.
“Obviously, we could run it to the ground and figure out what happened there,” said Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
The handling of national defense information is strictly governed by laws based on the espionage laws of the century. This includes provisions that it is a criminal deletion of such information from “appropriate custody” through gross negligence.
In 2015 and 2016, the Justice Department investigated whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had broken the law by communicating with an aide on a private email server he set up, but the FBI was ultimately recommended for the charges and no one was brought up.
During the Biden administration, some officials were given permission to download signals on White House-issued mobile phones, but they were instructed to use the app sparingly, according to a former national security official who served in the Democratic administration.
Officials who requested anonymity about the methods used to share sensitive information said the signal is most commonly used to inform someone when they are away from the office or notify them that their “high side” inbox needs to check for classified messages.
The app, which was also used by staff during the Biden administration, communicated about sensitive meeting scheduling and scheduling phones classified when they were outside the office, officials said.
The use of signals became more common during the Biden administration last year after federal law enforcement officials warned that China and Iran were hacking the White House, similar to the first Trump administration officials.
Officials were unaware of the Biden administration’s chief executive, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, and Secretary of Defense Jake Sullivan, using signals to discuss sensitive plans like the Trump administration.
Some of the harshest criticisms targeted former Fox News channel weekend host Hegseth. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a veteran of the Iraq War, said on social media that Hegustes “the most unqualified defense secretary in history shows his incompetence by literally leaking a secret war plan in group chat.”
Copp, Madhani and Tucker write for the Associated Press. AP writers Stephen Groves and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
