➤ In mid-March, a group of high-level members of President Donald Trump’s government discussed a US military operation in a group chat using an app called Signal. A reporter was accidentally added to the chat. The chat did not meet US rules for secure communication. No one has been punished.
In mid-March, a group of high-level members of President Donald Trump’s government discussed a US military operation in a group chat using an app called Signal. A reporter was accidentally added to the chat. The chat did not meet US rules for secure communication. No one has been punished.
On March 15, the US launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. The Houthis are a militant Islamist group supported by Iran. Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea.
On March 24, Jeffrey Goldberg, the chief editor for the magazine The Atlantic, reported that high-level members of the US government’s security team had been using a group chat on Signal to discuss a military attack on the Houthis. Mr. Goldberg said he knew this because he had been added to a group chat by accident. At first he thought someone was playing a joke on him. But he soon realized that the group chat was discussing the real attack on the Houthis.
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A Signal app download page on a mobile device is shown.
In his first report, Mr. Goldberg kept many details of the chat secret. But he confirmed that the chat was real. He listed most of the people involved in the chat. These included:
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
- Vice President JD Vance
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
- White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles
- National Security Advisor Mike Waltz
Mr. Goldberg’s report shocked many people. It suggested that Mr. Trump’s government was not taking security very seriously. High-level members of the government had broken the rules by using Signal. And sending information to a reporter about a military operation could have been extremely dangerous.
Signal is a secure app, but it is not approved for government communications. In fact, the Department of Defense had recently warned government workers against using it. Another problem was that the government is required to save a record of all important communications. But some Signal chats disappear automatically. The people on the chat knew these rules, but broke them anyway.
The government response was to deny that there had been a problem. Mr. Hegseth said very strongly, “Nobody was texting war plans.” Many people in Mr. Trump’s government attacked Mr. Goldberg, suggesting that he had caused the problem.
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Above, three of the people on the group chat: (left to right) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The government response was to deny that there had been a problem. Mr. Hegseth said very strongly, “Nobody was texting war plans.”
After the government denied that the situation was serious, Mr. Goldberg published the full chat. The texts made clear that the group had leaked important military information that could have caused serious problems for the pilots involved in the operation. The texts included very specific information about the planned attack.
Mr. Waltz has taken responsibility for adding Mr. Goldberg to the chat, but he says he doesn’t know how it happened. So far, no one has taken responsibility for discussing the military action in a way that wasn’t allowed. Mr. Trump has said that no one will be fired or punished for their actions.
Many people still have serious concerns about the event. The Senate has questioned several members of the chat group. A US judge has ordered that the texts of the chat must be saved. The Department of Defense says it will investigate the event.
Later reports indicate that Mr. Waltz has used Signal to discuss many other national security issues. There are also reports that military information has been exchanged over Gmail.
Government workers are not allowed to use either of these methods to communicate official government business. It’s not clear whether Mr. Waltz and other government workers are now using more secure – and approved – methods of communicating, or if they are still using tools like Signal and Gmail.