In mid-March, The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg found himself in a group chat with a user named Pete Hegseth - the same name as the US secretary of defense. It wasn't until later that he realized he'd accidentally been sent plans about imminent bombings in Yemen.
Goldberg revealed his unexpected involvement in the plans in an article published in The Atlantic on March 24, when he said he'd been sent the 'war plan' at 11:44am on March 15.
Later that same day, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce that the US had launched 'decisive and powerful' air strikes on Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in response to what he described as 'an 'unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones'.
According to the journalist, the plan he was texted included 'precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing'. He has released the names of the accounts included in the group chat, however it has not been confirmed whether the names were indeed the government officials, people acting on their behalf, or other people altogether.
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The first message - March 13
The details Goldberg received began on March 13, when he was added into a group chat called 'Houthi PC small group' on the messaging service Signal; a platform popular with journalists seeking additional privacy.
In the chat was a user who went by Michael Waltz - the same name as Trump’s national security adviser.
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According to Goldberg, the message sent by Waltz read: "Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.
"Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
Goldberg noted that 'principals' groups usually refer to the senior-most national-security officials, so he had, understandably, never been involved in one.
The responses
Other members of the group soon responded to the initial message, including a user named 'MAR'. The user hasn't been identified, however it's worth noting that the secretary of state is Marco Antonio Rubio.
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MAR: “Mike Needham for State."
JD Vance: "Andy baker for VP."
TG (again unidentified, though the director of national intelligence is named Tulsi Gabbard): “Joe Kent for DNI.”
Scott B (the Treasury Secretary is Scott Bessent): “Dan Katz for Treasury.”
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Pete Hegseth: "Dan Caldwell for DoD.”
Brian: "Brian McCormack for NSC.”
[Unnamed user, who Goldberg says is an 'active intelligence officer']: "John Ratcliffe."
March 14
At 8:05am, Goldberg received another message from the user named Michael Waltz which informed the members they had received a 'statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents [sic] guidance'.
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The JD Vance account responded: “Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake. 3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.”
The Vance account went on to take a stance against Trump's 'message on Europe', describing it as 'inconsistent'.
The message read: "There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Joe Kent - a user who shares a name with Trump’s nominee to run the National Counterterrorism Center, added there was 'nothing time sensitive' about the timeline.
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Hegseth wrote: "VP: I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS. Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc). I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what – nobody knows who the Houthis are – which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded.”
The Hegseth account added that waiting 'a few weeks' would not 'change the calculus' and risked the team looking 'indecisive', or Isreal taking 'action first'.
"We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should," the message continued. "This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered. But, we can easily pause. And if we do, I will do all we can to enforce 100% [operations security]. I welcome other thoughts.”
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The JD Vance account later addressed Hegseth, writing: "If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
Hegseth's account said 'now is as good a time as any', though noted the POTUS had '24 hours of decision space'.
SM (Stephen Miller is the deputy White House chief of staff) said: "As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
March 15
At 11:44am, Goldberg received a notification of a 'Team Update' from the Hegseth account. The journalist has chosen not to quote from the update, but said it contained information which could 'conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel'.
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Among the information included 'operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing'.
The Vance account responded: “I will say a prayer for victory."
At 1:55pm, Goldberg checked Twitter and found that explosions were being heard in Yemen.
On the Signal channel, the Michael Waltz account commended an 'amazing job'.
What have officials said about the messages?
After being contacted by Goldberg about the messages, Brian Hughes, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, said: "This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”
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A spokesperson for JD Vance has assured that the VP is aligned with the president, saying: "The Vice President’s first priority is always making sure that the President’s advisers are adequately briefing him on the substance of their internal deliberations. Vice President Vance unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy. The President and the Vice President have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.”
Emily Brown