Houthi Group Chat: What to Know
The Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeff Goldberg, was in for a surprise when on March 24, 2025, he was mistakenly added to a group chat with senior Trump officials. The group chat was created through an application known as Signal, and had 17 officials including Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Goldberg was mistakenly added to the group chat via Waltz, who mistakenly saved his number under the name of Brian Hughes, Trump’s national security spokesperson.
The content of the group chat is what startled the nation most, as it appeared that the officials were discussing upcoming military operations that they were planning against Houthis in Yemen. The text was sent thirty-one minutes before the first U.S. warplanes were launched, and approximately two hours before the period that the “Houthi Target Terrorist” was expected to be targeted by said aircrafts (CBS).
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on X (formerly known as Twitter), that these texts “were NOT war plans” (CBS). She further expressed that Jeff Goldberg was attempting to spin and anti-Trump rhetoric for the purpose of sensation. Mike Waltz also took to X to state that the messages were not war plans, and that foreign partners had been notified of the drone strikes ahead of time (CBS).
The Atlantic asked The Trump administration and White House officials if their objection to publishing the group chat screenshots was because they contained classified information or war plans, to which most did not respond. Karoline Leavitt retained that there was no classified information within the group chat, despite the objections to release them.
