White House Signal Messages Leaked

Author: V.Iyengar, Megaphone Editor-in-Chief

Earlier this week, the Atlantic published an article titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” This article sent shockwaves throughout the country due to the fact that Jeffrey Goldberg,Editor-in-Chief of the Atlantic and the journalist who leaked this story, was a person without clearance to have access to classified government information. Goldberg was somehow included in a group chat where Pete Hegseth, the current US Secretary of Defense, was casually sharing information, in great detail about the United State’s March 15th bombing of Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen just hours before the attack occurred. 

The response to this article has included reasonable anger among the Americans public and towards the government officials included in this group chat for these officials’ nonchalant attitude about such serious information, and has generated questions about how the White House uses these group chats.

The Signal Group Chat

The group chat that Goldberg somehow found himself a part of was on an encrypted messaging app called Signal, a messaging app available to the public on the app store. Signal is one of the most secure messaging platforms available to the general public, and conversations on the app are protected by end-to-end encryption, which makes it extremely difficult for messages to be hacked or otherwise deciphered. Unlike other messaging apps, Signal prides itself on not collecting its users’ personal data. In an interview with TIME in 2022, Signal President Meredith Whittaker said, “Our goal is that everyone in the world can pick up their device, and without thinking twice about it, or even having an ideological commitment to privacy, use Signal to communicate with anyone they want.”

Despite it being a comparatively secure option for the general public, cybersecurity experts warn that it is still not secure enough to be used as a replacement for typical government communication channels, as there still are risks that come with using the app. While Signal is encrypted, there is still a possibility of it being hacked. Another known vulnerability is that if someone is able to gain access to a person’s phone, they can link their device to the app and monitor messages remotely as they come in. In fact, the Pentagon warned government officials just one week ago about the concerns of using Signal even for unclassified information.

The title of this group chat was “Houthi PC Small Group,” where “PC” likely stands for Principal’s Committee, a subcommittee of the National Security Council. In addition to Goldberg and Hegseth, other members of this group chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. President Donald Trump was not a member.

The Leaked Messages

Specifically, the messages included a conversation between Hegseth and JD Vance in which Hegseth shares specific operational details about the March 15th attack. Some of these messages, taken from the Atlantic’s article, can be read below: 

• “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
• “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”
• “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”
• “1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”
• “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
• “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”
• “We are currently clean on OPSEC” (OPSEC is operational security).

A strike package includes all people and weapons used in an attack. MQ-9s are armed drones and Tomahawks are ship-launched cruise missiles. In addition to attack details, JD Vance and Hegseth appeared to go back-and-forth, with Vance expressing his concerns about Americans’ response to the increased oil and gas prices this attack (and others like it) would end up causing.

• Vance: “I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself, 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.”
• Vance: “If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,” 
• Hegseth: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC,” 

It is currently unknown how Goldberg came to be a part of the group chat, and he claims he doesn’t know how or when he was added. 

The White House’s Response

These messages have generated much anger and concern from civilians and politicians alike, as Signal is not cleared to store and send out classified information, in addition to the fact that a non-government official was included in these communications. However, when asked, White House officials have maintained that the information Hegseth was sharing was not classified.

In a post to X, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that any classified material was shared on the thread Additionally, Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that it was up to Hegseth to determine whether the information he was posting was classified or not. However, on Tuesday, Ratcliffe said that “pre-decisional strike deliberation should be conducted through classified channels.” When reached out to by the Associated Press, the Pentagon refused to comment.

President Trump and Hegseth have not addressed whether the information in those text messages was classified or not, with Hegseth attacking Goldberg as “deceitful” and a “discredited so-called journalist,” while alluding to previous critical reporting of President Trump from the publication. On X, President Trump and Elon Musk spotlighted a post by a right-wing news organization with the title, “4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans to ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them.”

President Trump has also expressed no desire to reprimand neither Hegseth nor Waltz, the people chiefly responsible for this leak, saying that Waltz, who created this group chat, is a “good man” who has “learned his lesson.” 

However, it is unclear if these claims of the information Hegseth was sharing being unclassified are actually correct, and many other experts on national security have noted that the information Hegseth shared usually is classified, and that if it gets out, it can put American pilots and the attack in jeopardy, as it gives our opponents time to respond. 

Another problem is that under the Presidential Records Act, the president is required to archive all planning discussions. However, the messages in the Signal text chat were set to disappear in one week, which creates an issue when Signal is relied upon as a source for communications. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to preserve all messages exchanged in the Signal group-chat.