Sensitive American military plans for Yemen were accidentally shared with a U.S. journalist in a group chat.
U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Tuesday claimed “full responsibility” for mistakenly adding a journalist to a group chat in which top American officials discussed impending strikes in Yemen.
“I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated,” Waltz told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in his first interview on the security breach, adding that he does not personally know Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who was added to the chat.
Here are six key takeaways:
The Signal app
Instead of going through classified government communication channels, top U.S. officials used the publicly available Signal messaging app to share sensitive information about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. Signal has developed a reputation for its security and end-to-end encryption, which is designed to block others from snooping on user data.
Boasting millions of users, the increasingly popular app is also used for video calls and group chats, like the one at the centre of the recent controversy. Signal includes common privacy features like disappearing messages, which vanish after a set time. Communications on Signal are widely considered more secure than other common apps and traditional texts and calls, although experts warn that no app is impenetrable. Available for Android, iOS and desktop devices, the app has reportedly been blocked by countries like Russia and China.
By sharing sensitive military plans on a common app, it is unclear if U.S. officials violated the century-old Espionage Act, which governs the handling of national defence information.
A disdain for Europe
Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg broke the story on Monday in an article that included excerpts from the Signal group chat he was accidentally added to.
The military strikes that were discussed eventually targeted Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, who have been disrupting shipping lanes leading to the Suez Canal in escalating attacks since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
“3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does,” an account possibly belonging to U.S. Vice-President JD Vance posted in the group chat. “I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
“I fully share your loathing of European free-loading,” a user with the same name as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded. “It’s PATHETIC.”
An account identified as “S M” – possibly deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller – then mentions Europe and says if the U.S. “successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
A disconnect between Vance and Trump?
In the group chat, the person identified as Vance called the proposed actions a “mistake” and said they would prefer if strikes would be delayed by a month.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” the Vance account wrote. “I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself.”
Trump has taken aim at European NATO allies for not spending enough on defence and relying too heavily on the U.S. for security. Although Vance criticized Trump before becoming his vice-presidential nominee, he has not publicly questioned his boss since.
According to Goldberg from the Atlantic, a spokesperson for Vance subsequently wrote him to say the vice-president and Trump “have had subsequent conversations about this matter and are in complete agreement.”
What about Hillary’s emails?
Although U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his team previously blasted former presidential rival Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she served as Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, their response to this alleged security breach via a common app has been more muted.
In a brief interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Trump described the incident as “the only glitch in two months” of his presidency “and it turned out not to be a serious one.”
“Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth told reporters on Monday. Just days prior, Hegseth had announced a crackdown on military leaks.
In a Monday post on X, Clinton shared the original Atlantic article with the caption: “You have got to be kidding me.”
Emojis galore
After strikes were announced, an account labelled Michael Waltz – possibly Trump’s national security adviser – reacted with three emojis: a fist, a U.S. flag and fire. Goldberg claims Waltz was the person who initially added him to the group chat.
An account possibly attributed to Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff responded to the news with five emojis: two praying hands, a flexed arm and two U.S. flags. Two other members of the group chat also used prayer emojis.
Condemnation from Democrats
Rival Democrats were quick to condemn the incident, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who called for an investigation.
“This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time,” Schumer said in a speech Monday.
That sentiment was echoed by Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. In a statement, Reed said that if Goldberg’s reporting is true, “this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen.”
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the leading Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, released a statement saying that if a lower-ranking official “did what is described here, they would likely lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation.”
With files from The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP
