Donald Trump’s war plans revealed after journalist was accidentally added to group chat

In quite the blunder, a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat, revealing the Trump administration's war plans.

The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, made the astonishing claim yesterday (24 March) that US senior officials had included him in a top-secret chat earlier this month.

He claimed that a user identified as Michael Waltz sent him a connection request on Signal but ‘did not assume that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz’.

However, it seems it was Donald Trump’s national security advisor appearing to add Goldberg to the open-source encrypted messaging service, before he was later included in a group chat named ‘Houthi PC small group’.

Michael Waltz is said to have added Jeffrey Goldberg (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

This apparently included the likes of Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.

Goldberg says the group chat contained communication over military plans about airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, ‘including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying and attack sequencing’.

“The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen,” he explained.

“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 defence, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m.”

As outrage followed Goldberg’s groundbreaking revelation, Trump initially told reporters he wasn’t aware the highly sensitive information had been shared.

The National Security Council confirmed the chat was authentic and said it in a statement it was looking into how his number was added to the chain.

Spokesman Brian Hughes told the BBC: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic. We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.

“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy co-ordination between senior officials.”

Goldberg is perhaps not one of the journalists most favoured by the US president and in his initial comments, Hegseth called him ‘deceitful’ and a ‘discredited so-called journalist’.

Vance and Hegseth were also reportedly in the chat (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

While Trump had said at first: “I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time,” and added that The Atlantic was ‘not much of a magazine’, he appeared to be jokingly brushing it aside later in the day.

The president amplified a post from Elon Musk spotlighting a conservative satirical news site article with the slamming headline: “4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans to ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them.”

The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Senator Mark Warner, wrote on social media: “This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe.”

While House Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said the leak was ‘completely outrageous and shocks the conscience’.

And Republican Senator John Cornyn said it was a ‘huge screw-up’.