Washington, DC:
US President Donald Trump was shocked to learn that his administration’s top officials and aides mistakingly leaked war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic after the journalist was mistakenly included in a private Signal group chat. When asked about the security breach during a press conference at the White House’s Roosevelt Room on Monday, the stunned commander-in-chief told reporters, “You’re telling me about it for the first time.”
“I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine but I know nothing about it…You’re saying that they had what,” Trump said.
He, however, added that “the attack was very effective” in any case.
Trump Says He Knows ‘Nothing’ About His Defense Officials Texting War Plans To The Atlantic Editor pic.twitter.com/ni8W1sQTNi
— NDTV WORLD (@NDTVWORLD) March 25, 2025
The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, did not dispute the authenticity of the messages. The National Security Council said reported the text chain “appears to be authentic.”
The report said Goldberg received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser. He was then added to a group, which also included Waltz, in addition to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, two that before the strike.
Goldberg then received texts from other top government officials designating representatives who would work on the matter. He also shared that Hegseth sent information on the strikes, including “targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing” to the group chat.
Did JD Vance Go Against Trump?
The messages revealed by the Atlantic also highlighted Vice President JD Vance’s disagreement with Trump’s Yemen strategy. Goldberg, in his report, said that a person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes on March 14, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again”. He also argued that the Trump administration didn’t need to rush to attack Yemen saying Europeans were more affected by Houthi attacks on shipping than the United States.
He made the case that Europe would benefit much more than the US by the action aimed at decimating the Houthis and securing Red Sea shipping lanes.
“Three per cent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 per cent 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,” Vance reportedly wrote in a message.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance says in a later message.
Vance in the chain of the messages questioned whether Americans would understand the importance of strikes that came with the risk of “a moderate to severe spike in oil prices” and if the timing of the operation might be a “mistake.”
“I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself,” Vance argued. “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.”
After pushback from other members of the Trump administration, Vance appears to address Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying “If you think we should do it let’s go”.
“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” Vance said.
“I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC,” Hegseth replied. He added, “I think we should go.”
The vice president’s communication director, William Martin, in a statement, downplayed the debate.
He said Vance “unequivocally supports this administration’s foreign policy.”