The inside story of how a journalist was sent White House war plans

Updated March 25, 2025 at 09:50 AM ET

In a major security breach, a prominent journalist says he was unintentionally included in a group text messaging app as the country’s top national security officials discussed plans to bomb the Houthis in Yemen.

The existence of message chain was revealed Monday in a story in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the magazine. The group chat took place on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, and began on March 11. Although no one else seemed to be aware of Goldberg’s presence, 18 individuals participated in the chain, including Vice President JD Vance, national security adviser Michael Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

Goldberg said he received a connection request on Tuesday, March 11 from a user on Signal identified as Waltz and accepted it. Two days later, he was added to a group chat on the platform called “Houthi PC small group.” Over the course of the following days, Goldberg told NPR in an interview that he was exposed to “operational military information,” including discussions about planned military strikes on Yemen targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels .

Goldberg said he was in disbelief over the security breach, noting that he was not vetted before being added to the group chat.

“I assume that I’m being hoaxed. I assume that either this is a foreign intelligence operation or an organization that tries to, you know, set up journalists or embarrass them or feed them,” Goldberg said during an interview on All Things Considered on Monday. “It was a chilling thing to realize that I’ve inadvertently discovered a massive security breach in the national security system of the United States.”

Trump says Waltz 'learned a lesson’

The Trump administration is now facing criticism over its handling of sensitive information on foreign policy, with the texting mishap raising concerns among national security experts.

Trump told NBC News in a phone interview on Tuesday that an aide to Waltz was responsible for the adding Goldberg to the group.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump told NBC News.

Trump described the situation as “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.”

Trump retains confidence in Waltz, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“As President Trump said, the attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective. President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt said on social media that no classified material was discussed on the thread, and said “terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”

The National Security Council is “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” its spokesman Brian Hughes said on Monday.

Asked about the Signal messages on Monday, Hegseth told reporters, “nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that.”

Former national security adviser John Bolton, who served during the first Trump administration, said he was “without words” when he first heard of the incident.

“I couldn’t imagine anybody would use Signal,” Bolton said during an  interview on CNN  on Monday, said the discussion should have taken place in the White House Situation Room, a secure location for monitoring intelligence and national security.

Mietek Boduszyński , a former U.S. State Department diplomat and associate politics professor at Pomona College, also said in a statement on Monday he is shocked and that in his experience, even mentioning a meeting topic on a social media platform “would be crazy and unheard of.”

“This is one of the most extraordinary reports on U.S. foreign policy/national security I have ever read, not because it exposes some kind of scandal, but because it lays bare what is usually a highly classified interagency decision-making process,”  Boduszyński  said in the statement. “I have participated in these kinds of policy meetings, albeit not at the principals’ level, and they are always conducted over highly secure channels.”

Democrats are also criticizing the White House

Democrats are also criticizing the Trump administration about the Signal discussion. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday said the leak of national security information is “completely outrageous and shocks the conscience.”

“If House Republicans are truly serious about keeping America safe, and not simply being sycophants and enablers, they must join Democrats in a swift, serious and substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach,” Jeffries said in a statement on Monday.

California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said officials on the message chain should face disciplinary action. 

“Everyone on the public WAR PLANS group text should immediately lose their security clearances and be fired,” Swalwell posted on X . “Their idiocy just put a giant target on America. We are not safe.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also called for an investigation into the message and the “damage it created.”

“This kind of security breach is how people get killed,” Schumer wrote on X on Monday . “How our enemies take advantage. How our national security falls into danger.”

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