Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied an explosive report Monday that he accidentally texted highly sensitive “war plans” to a journalist as part of a Signal group chat with more than a dozen top Trump officials.
Why it matters: The White House National Security Council confirmed Monday that the group text, mistakenly revealed to The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, “appears to be authentic.”
- Goldberg, who was added to the group by national security adviser Mike Waltz, published messages in which Hegseth, Vice President Vance, and other officials debated bombing the Houthis in Yemen earlier this month.
- Goldberg said he withheld texts from Hegseth that “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
What they’re saying: Hegseth, who briefly spoke to reporters after landing in Hawaii Monday, lashed out at Goldberg for The Atlantic’s history of publishing negative stories about President Trump.
- “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called ‘journalist’ who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again,” Hegseth said, attacking Goldberg’s reporting on the Russia investigation and allegations that Trump called fallen veterans “suckers and losers.”
- Hegseth went on to defend Trump’s March 15 airstrikes against the Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia group that has disrupted billions of dollars by blockading commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
Asked why details of the operation were shared on Signal, an encrypted messaging app available to the public, Hegseth denied that part of Goldberg’s reporting.
- “I’ve heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” the former Fox News host said.
The latest: Goldberg later responded to Hegseth on MSNBC, alleging that the texts he withheld included “precise details” of the attack on the Houthis — including the specific time, specific targets and sequencing of the operation.
- “He can say that it wasn’t a war plan, but it was a minute-by-minute accounting of what was about to happen, organized by CENTCOM … and [shared] with a bunch of civilian leaders,” Goldberg said.
Between the lines: Hegseth is the first Trump official to deny the explosive Atlantic report, which has set off massive outcry and calls for accountability among Democrats and national security experts.
- The National Security Council said it was reviewing “how an inadvertent number was added” to the group text.
- “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 our servicemembers or our national security,” NSC spokesman Brian Hughes said.
- The White House has not addressed why the U.S. government’s top national security officials would be communicating potentially classified information on an app like Signal.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with comment from The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
