Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was accidentally added to a top-secret White House Signal chat discussing an upcoming military strike on Yemen. The group included 18 high-level officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director Tulsi Gabbard.
Goldberg revealed the breach on Monday, saying National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had mistakenly added him to the chat titled “Houthi PC small group,” where sensitive details—like targets and strike timing—were shared. Goldberg claims Hegseth himself texted war plans two hours before the March 15 attack.
Hegseth denied this, calling Goldberg a “discredited” journalist who “peddles in garbage,” and criticized The Atlantic’s coverage. The Pentagon referred questions back to Hegseth, while Trump dismissed the story and mocked The Atlantic as “a magazine going out of business.”
Lawmakers, including Sen. Jack Reed and Sen. Roger Wicker, have raised alarms over the breach, calling it a dangerous lapse in security. Goldberg, in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, called the mistake outrageous, saying, “They’re lucky they didn’t send this to a Houthi.”
Now, the spotlight is on how such a serious security error happened—and whether anyone will be held accountable.