White House mistakenly shares Yemen war plans with a journalist at The Atlantic

Senior officials from the Trump administration inadvertently revealed war strategies in a chat group that had a journalist right before the U.S. launched strikes against Yemen’s Houthis aligned with Iran, the White House announced on Monday, citing a first-hand report by The Atlantic.

Democratic legislators quickly condemned the error, stating it violated U.S. national security and broke the law, warranting an investigation by Congress.

In a report published Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, mentioned that he received an unanticipated invitation on March 13 to join an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app named “Houthi PC small group.” In the team, national security adviser Mike Waltz assigned his deputy Alex Wong to establish a “tiger team” to organize U.S. efforts against the Houthis.

Brian Hughes, spokesperson for the National Security Council, stated that the chat group seemed to be genuine.

On March 15, U.S. President Donald Trump initiated a continuous campaign of extensive military operations against Yemen’s Houthis in response to the group’s assaults on shipping in the Red Sea, cautioning Iran, the Houthis’ primary supporter, to immediately cease its aid to the group.

Goldberg wrote that accounts seemingly representing Vice President JD Vance, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and senior officials from the National Security Council were gathered in the chat group.

Joe Kent, the individual Trump nominated for director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was reportedly on the Signal chain even though he had not yet been confirmed by the Senate.

According to screenshots of the chat reported by The Atlantic, officials in the group debated whether the U.S. should carry out the strikes, and at one point Vance appeared to question whether U.S. allies in Europe, more exposed to shipping disruption in the region, deserved U.S. help.

“@PeteHegseth if you think we should do it let’s go,” a person identified as Vance wrote. “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” the person wrote, adding: “Let’s just make sure our messaging is tight here.”

A person identified as Hegseth replied: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”

The Atlantic reported that the person identified as Vance also raised concerns about the timing of the strikes, and said there was a strong argument in favor of delaying them by a month.

“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices,” the account wrote, before saying he was willing to support the group’s consensus.

Under U.S. law, it can be a crime to mishandle, misuse or abuse classified information, though it is unclear whether those provisions might have been breached in this case. Messages that The Atlantic report said were set by Waltz to disappear from the Signal app after a period of time also raise questions about possible violations of federal record-keeping laws.

As part of a Trump administration effort to chase down leaks by officials to journalists unrelated to the Signal group, Gabbard posted on X on March 14 that any “unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such.”

On Tuesday, Gabbard is due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats to the United States.