AGENCY
washington, Mar 25
The Donald Trump administration has failed to keep its military plans in Yemen a secret, with an inadvertent mistake by White House Officials resulting in a security breach.
In a meeting held via Signal app, Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard discussed the plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles was also in the chat. However, there was another unexpected guest in the online meeting – journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine.
Goldberg in an article revealed that he was included in the Signal chat titled ‘Houthi PC Small Group’ that had a total of 19 members.
National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes acknowledged the security breach, adding that they are probing how an unauthorised contact was included in the message chain.
Defense Secretary Hegseth, while responding on the issue, did not reveal why an app like Signal was used for sensitive discussion of national importance. The app is not approved by the US government for exchange of such discussions.
“Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that,” he said.
However, Goldberg reacted to Hegseth on CNN, calling it a lie. “No, that’s a lie. He was texting war plans,” he added.
Hegseth then went on to call Goldberg a “deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist” who peddles garbage.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump has the “utmost confidence” in his team.
When asked about the Signal chat leak, President Trump said he did not know about it. “I am not a big fan of the Atlantic,” he told reporters.
