How an American journalist knew of Trump’s war plans

Jeffrey Goldberg was included in a group chat with, Vice President JD Vance, Secretray of State Marc Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other top officials. Pic/AFP

Top national security officials for US President Donald Trump, including his defence secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online on Monday.

The National Security Council said the text chain "appears to be authentic". Trump initially told reporters he was not aware that the highly sensitive information had been shared two and a half hours after it was reported. He later appeared to joke about the breach.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief, The Atlantic

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", editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.

Just two hours after Goldberg received the details of the attack on March 15, the US began launching a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The National Security Council said in a statement that it was looking into how a journalist's number was added to the chain in the Signal group chat.

In addition to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, it included Vice-President J D Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's director of national intelligence. Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump's national security advisor.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever