National security council investigating after Trump administration accidentally texted journalist top-secret Yemen war plans
Members of Congress and national security staffers have been left stunned after top Trump administration officials, including the vice-president and the defense secretary, discussed war plans on Signal – and mistakenly added a journalist to the group chat.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic, wrote:
The world found out shortly before 2pm eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44am. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. This is going to require some explaining.
He goes on:
I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior US officials, up to and including the vice president.
The National Security Council confirmed it was real and said it was investigating. Democrats are already demanding hearings as concerns arise about the security of classified communications.
Democratic senator Jack Reed, the ranking member of the senate armed services committee, said in a statement:
If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen. Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line. The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is stunning and dangerous. I will be seeking answers from the Administration immediately.
Democrat Pat Ryan an Army veteran who also sits on the armed services committee, wrote on X:
Only one word for this: FUBAR.
If House Republicans won’t hold a hearing on how this happened IMMEDIATELY, I’ll do it my damn self. pic.twitter.com/uGihDr5xZa
— Pat Ryan 🇺🇸 (@PatRyanUC) March 24, 2025
Marine veteran and Democratic Arizona senator Ruben Gallego said: “If I handled classified and sensitive information in this way when I was in the Marines … oh boy … ”
Amateur hour. These are the genuises that are also selling out Ukraine and destroying our alliances all around the world. No wonder Putin is embarrassing them at the negotiation table. https://t.co/I8qv0AMV31
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) March 24, 2025
Key events
Closing summary
We’re closing the blog for today, thanks for following along. Here are some key links and stories from the day:
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, has addressed the Trump administration’s accidentally inclusion of a journalist on a group chat discussing planned attacks in Yemen, saying the leak of “sensitive national security information” on a “non-classified system” was “completely outrageous and shocks the conscience”. His statement continued:
It is yet another unprecedented example that our nation is increasingly more dangerous because of the elevation of reckless and mediocre individuals, including the secretary of defense [Pete Hegseth]. If House Republicans are truly serious about keeping America safe, and not simply being sycophants and enablers, they must join Democrats in a swift, serious and substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach.
Earlier today, Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said “this kind of carelessness is how people get killed”, adding: “It is how our enemies take advantage of us. It is how our national security falls into danger … It is bad enough that a private citizen was added to this chain, but it is far worse that sensitive military information was exchanged on an unauthorized application – especially when that sensitive military information was so, so important.”
The Democratic leaders’ statements came after the Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor in chief was added to a group chat on Signal, the messaging app, in which Hegseth, vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and other key figures discussed “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”.
More here:
Columbia student protester sues to block deportation: ‘Shocking overreach’
Dani Anguiano
A Columbia University student who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at the university is suing Donald Trump’s administration for attempting to deport her.
Attorneys for Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old who has legally resided in the US since childhood, filed a complaint on Monday describing the government’s actions as “shocking overreach” and an “unprecedented and unjustifiable assault” on her rights.
Chung has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus since 2023, and was arrested earlier this month while protesting the university’s “excessive punishments” of student activists, according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by the New York Times.
Read the full story here:
Trump administration cancels 68 grants related to LGBTQ+ health
The Trump administration has canceled at least 68 grants to 46 institutions related to LGBTQ+ health, including HIV prevention research and studies related to youth suicide, the AP reported.
The grants totaled nearly $40m when they were awarded, but some funds had already been spent, according to the AP. The revoking of funds is part of Donald Trump’s broad attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, with a focus on institutions and organizations that serve trans people. The impacted grants came from the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the US Health and Human Services agency.
One canceled project was at at Vanderbilt University and was studying the health of 1,200 LGBTQ+ people age 50 and older, according to the AP.
Pete Hegseth on his leaked military strikes chat: ‘Nobody was texting war plans’
Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, has responded to the growing scandal surrounding his and other senior Trump administration officials’ text conversation about airstrikes in Yemen in a group text that inadvertently included a journalist.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” the head of the defense department said in brief remarks when questioned by reporters about the extraordinary leak of highly sensitive messages on Signal, a commercial chat app.
.@SecDef Hegseth on @JeffreyGoldberg: “You’re talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again…This is a guy who peddles in garbage…Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say.” pic.twitter.com/IEYyMPYQBz
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 24, 2025
On Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, revealed that he had been accidentally added to a Signal group that included Hegseth, vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and other key Trump administration figures.
The group was named “Houthi PC small group”, and in it, officials discussed “operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing”, Goldberg said. A “TEAM UPDATE” posted by an account bearing Hegseth’s name contained information that if “read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility”, the journalist said.
Goldberg said he learned strikes would be taking place in Yemen hours before they occurred, and saw how, after the attacks, members of the group offered congratulatory messages.
In his brief remarks when pressed by a reporter about the scandal, Hegseth also called Goldberg a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist”, but did not specifically refute any facts of the Atlantic story. A US national security council spokesperson confirmed to the Atlantic that the chat was authentic.
Goldberg’s story says the conducting of a national-security-related action on Signal “may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act” and that Signal is “not approved by the government for sharing classified information”. Delaware senator Chris Coons earlier said in a statement that members of the thread had “committed a crime – even if accidentally”.
Trump signs order imposing tariffs on countries importing Venezuelan oil
The White House has released Donald Trump’s executive order sanctioning countries that purchase oil or gas from Venezuela, a move the president announced earlier today as his administration faces intense scrutiny for its deportations of Venezuelans.
The order says that starting on 2 April, a tariff of 25% “may be imposed on all goods imported into the United States from any country that imports Venezuelan oil, whether directly from Venezuela or indirectly through third parties”.
The executive order includes false and unsubstantiated claims that the Biden administration had “open-borders policies”, with Trump earlier repeating his baseless assertion that “Venezuela has purposefully and deceitfully sent to the United States, undercover, tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals, many of whom are murderers and people of a very violent nature”.
The order came soon after an appeals court judge sharply rebuked the Trump administration, saying Nazis were given more rights to contest their removal from the US during the second world war than Venezuelan people recently deported.
Head of US Postal Service resigns amid protests by workers
Louis DeJoy, the US postmaster general, is resigning effective immediately after five years heading the Postal Service and after recent protests by postal workers concerned about the Trump administration’s threats to USPS.
DeJoy has led the agency since 2020 and had earlier this year asked his governor board to identify a successor, but his abrupt departure today came as a surprise, AP reported.
DeJoy had said he planned to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the Postal Service’s budget and that he was working with Elon Musk, the AP noted.
Musk has said USPS should be privatized, sparking widespread backlash, and Donald Trump has said he was considering merging USPS with the commerce department, a move Democrats and other critics have said would be unlawful and would strip the agency of independence. Postal workers have been protesting across the country. More background here:
Democratic National Committee calls on Pete Hegseth to resign or be fired
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, has called on Pete Hegseth to resign or be fired from his position as defense secretary over the escalating scandal surrounding the administration’s accidental leak of highly sensitive military plans to a journalist.
Martin said in a statement late Monday:
Pete Hegseth was unfit to lead the Defense Department even before he risked our national security through his own sloppy handling of sensitive military information. Just like his boss Donald Trump, Hegseth – and everyone else involved – put on a stunning display of recklessness and disregard for our national security. Hegseth should resign, and if he doesn’t resign, he should be fired. It’s crystal clear that our men and women in uniform deserve better – and that our national security cannot be left in Hegseth’s incompetent and unqualified hands.
Martin’s comments follow a piece from Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic magazine, revealing that he was inadvertently added to a group chat of senior Trump administration officials discussing plans to bomb Houthi targets across Yemen. Goldberg, a prominent US journalist, remained on the chat on Signal, a private messaging app, apparently undetected.
The chat included Hegseth, vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Goldberg said he was connected to the group via Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser. The messages included sensitive policy discussions between Rubio and Hegseth. The national security council confirmed to the Atlantic that the group was authentic and said it was investigating how an “inadvertent number” was added.
A New York Times columnist also called on Hegseth to resign, and one critic noted that in 2023, Hegseth had sharply criticized Joe Biden for handling classified information “flippantly”, saying there should be “accountability … at the very top”.
A White House spokesperson said Trump “continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz”.
Hillary Clinton on leak scandal: ‘You have got to be kidding me’
Hillary Clinton, who faced widespread media scrutiny for using a private email server while serving as secretary of state, has commented on the Trump administration’s extraordinary leak of secretive war plans when officials accidentally included a prominent journalist on a group chat.
“You have got to be kidding me,” the 2016 Democratic nominee for president wrote on X. She shared a link to Atlantic story written by the magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, which revealed he had been added to a group on Signal, a private messaging app, that included vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and other major Trump administration figures discussing plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Journalists and pundits have been comparing Clinton’s email scandal, which impacted her 2016 race against Trump, to the current breach. Some have shared 2016 comments by Marco Rubio, then a senator, in which he said Clinton should be “held accountable” and was not “above the law”.
Trump to nominate Susan Monarez for CDC director after abrupt withdrawal of first pick
Donald Trump will nominate Dr Susan Monarez, the acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to permanently lead the agency, the White House said on Monday.
The announcement came after the president earlier this month abruptly pulled the nomination for his first choice, David Weldon, a 71-year-old doctor and former Republican Florida congressman who was closely scrutinized for anti-vaccine views. Monarez has been acting director of the CDC since January and previously worked at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, another federal agency, the AP reported.
The president said in a post on Monday: “As an incredible mother and dedicated public servant, Dr Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future … Americans have lost confidence in the CDC due to political bias and disastrous mismanagement.”
Judge blocks Trump’s removal of trans service members in another court victory for LGBTQ+ rights
A federal judge has ruled that the US government cannot remove two transgender men from the Air Force, the latest courtroom victory for LGBTQ+ rights advocates challenging Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans people from military service, the AP reports.
On Monday, Christine O’Hearn, a US judge in New Jersey, issued a two-week restraining order barring the enforcement of Trump’s policy on the impacted plaintiffs. O’Hearn’s ruling comes days after a similar ruling by a federal judge in Washington DC.
O’Hearn said the trans plaintiffs, Master Sgt Logan Ireland and Staff Sgt Nicholas Bear Bade, had shown that their removal from service would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations, the AP reported. The judge said they were likely to prevail on equal protection grounds as they had been singled out due to their sex, and that the US could not justify the discriminatory treatment. The restraining order said, in part:
The loss of military service under the stigma of a policy that targets gender identity is not merely a loss of employment; it is a profound disruption of personal dignity, medical continuity, and public service.
Last week, Judge Ana Reyes of Washington DC sharply criticized Trump’s executive order, saying the ban on trans service members was “soaked in animus,” adding: “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, subsequently mocked Reyes and subjected her to personal attacks.
Trump on the White House leak of Yemen plans: ‘I don’t know anything about it’
Donald Trump has now been asked about his cabinet members accidentally leaking war plans to an Atlantic journalist who was mistakenly copied on a Signal group chat.
“I don’t know anything about it,” he responded at a briefing, before criticizing the Atlantic as a magazine “going out of business”. The president reiterated that he was not aware of the story, saying: “You’re telling me about it for the first time.”
The use of Signal, a private commercial app, to discuss highly sensitive national security matters and war plans – and the undetected inclusion of a journalist – has sparked widespread, bipartisan outrage. More on the White House response from the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon:
The White House confirmed the leak. National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told the Guardian: ‘This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.’
But the White House attempted to defend the communications, with Hughes describing the messages as an example of ‘deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials’.
‘The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security,’ Hughes said.
Outrage after Trump officials accidentally leak war plans to journalist: ‘A crime’
The White House’s shocking leak of secret military plans to a journalist, who was accidentally included in a group chat, has sparked widespread, bipartisan outrage.
The Atlantic magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed in a stunning story today that he had been inadvertently invited into a chat group on Signal, a private messaging app, that included vice-president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth and other high-profile figures in Donald Trump’s administration. Goldberg was apparently undetected in the chat as cabinet members discussed upcoming attacks on the Houthi armed group in Yemen.
Elected officials are expressing disbelief and anger at the extraordinary security blunder, the Guardian’s Joseph Gedeon reports.
Delaware senator Chris Coons said: “Every single one of the government officials on this text chain have now committed a crime – even if accidentally.” Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: “This administration is playing fast and loose with our nation’s most classified info, and it makes all Americans less safe.”
Republican senator John Cornyn called it “a huge screw-up” and said it was being investigated. New York Republican representative Mike Lawler said: “Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels – and certainly not to those without security clearances. Period.” More reactions here:
State department on White House leak of war plans: ‘No comment’
A spokesperson for the US state department has repeatedly refused to comment on the administration’s extraordinary blunder of discussing secret military plans on a chat that included a prominent journalist.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine, revealed today that key figures in Donald Trump’s cabinet – including vice-president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard – used the commercial chat app, Signal, to discuss plans for US attacks on the Houthi armed group in Yemen. The chat inadvertently included Goldberg, who was added by one of its members and apparently was unnoticed by the rest of the group.
At a briefing, a reporter pressed Tammy Bruce, state department spokesperson, about the scandal, asking, “Why was the cabinet … discussing a potential military operation on Signal, which is a public app, and why didn’t they notice a phone number that was not part of their group, and how concerned is the secretary about the implications of this?”
Bruce responded: “We will not comment on the secretary’s deliberative conversations … You should contact the White House.” Bruce continued to refuse to comment as the reporter asked for the perspective of Marco Rubio, the secretary of state. The national security council has said it is investigating the matter.
More background here:
