WASHINGTON — A senior Trump administration official mistakenly included a journalist in a Signal group chat discussing highly classified U.S. military plans for a strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, the White House confirmed Monday. The chat, which reportedly involved top national security and defense officials, was first revealed in a report by The Atlantic.
The unsecure conversation reportedly included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes acknowledged the authenticity of the chat and said the administration was investigating how an unauthorized number was added.
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes said. “The thread is a demonstration of 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.”
When asked about the incident, President Donald Trump said he was unaware of it, stating, “I don’t know anything about it,” and adding that he was hearing about it for the first time from the reporter posing the question.
The Pentagon declined to comment on Defense Secretary Hegseth’s involvement, referring inquiries to the National Security Council and the White House. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers voiced alarm over the apparent breach and called for a formal investigation.
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned the incident as “stunning and dangerous.”
“If true, this represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen,” Reed said in a statement. “Military operations must be handled with the utmost discretion, using only secure communication channels.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged Republican leaders to support a full congressional investigation, calling the mishap “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence in recent history.”
“This kind of carelessness is how people get killed,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “It’s how our enemies take advantage of us and how our national security is put at risk.”
Other lawmakers echoed similar concerns. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, criticized Defense Secretary Hegseth, calling him “the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in history” and accusing him of “literally leaking classified war plans in a group chat.”
Sen. Chris Coons suggested the participants may have “committed a crime—even if accidentally,” while Rep. Ruben Gallego called the blunder “amateur hour.”
“These are the same geniuses who are selling out Ukraine and destroying our alliances worldwide,” Gallego said. “No wonder Putin is embarrassing them at the negotiation table.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed the breach, suggesting the issue was being addressed internally.
“The administration is looking into what happened, apparently an inadvertent phone number was added to the thread,” Johnson said. “They’re going to track that down and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
When pressed on whether conducting sensitive discussions on an unsecure app was irresponsible, Johnson declined to characterize the incident. He also said he did not believe Waltz or Hegseth should face disciplinary action.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who endured years of Republican criticism over her use of a private email server while in office, weighed in on X (formerly Twitter), writing simply: “You have got to be kidding me.”
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