A major security breach involving top Trump administration officials has erupted into a full-blown crisis after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published additional text messages from a Signal group chat, revealing detailed plans for a U.S. military strike on Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The revelations, which contradict earlier denials from senior officials, have sparked widespread condemnation and calls for accountability, exposing significant lapses in the handling of sensitive information.

The controversy began earlier this week when Goldberg disclosed he had been inadvertently added to the encrypted chat by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. The group, which included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, was initially reported to have discussed operational details of a March 15 strike on Houthi targets. Administration officials, including Hegseth, dismissed the claims, with the Defense Secretary asserting, “No war plans were texted,” and others testifying under oath that no classified information had been compromised.

However, the newly released texts, published today in The Atlantic under the headline “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal,” paint a starkly different picture. Among the messages, Hegseth is shown providing a precise timeline—“F-18s hit at 13:45 ET, drones follow”—while Waltz shares real-time updates from Sanaa: “Target down, confirmed kills.” The level of specificity has stunned security experts, who warn that such details, if intercepted, could have endangered U.S. personnel and operations.

The White House has struggled to contain the damage. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained that the texts contained “no classified information” but objected to their publication, citing unspecified national security concerns. President Trump, speaking to reporters, initially claimed ignorance—“I don’t know anything about it”—before downplaying the incident as “the only hiccup in two months” and attacking Goldberg as a “sleazebag” and The Atlantic as a “failing rag.” Behind closed doors, however, administration sources acknowledge the situation as a major blunder.

Reaction across Washington has been swift and bipartisan. Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, labeled the incident “a breach of unimaginable proportions,” while Republican Senator John Cornyn called it “a huge screw-up.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries demanded Hegseth’s resignation, citing “gross incompetence.”

Security experts have raised alarms about the use of Signal, a civilian encrypted messaging app, for such sensitive discussions. While secure, it falls short of government standards for handling classified or operational data, potentially violating federal protocols and laws like the Espionage Act.

Congressional leaders have scheduled emergency hearings to investigate the breach, with lawmakers pressing for answers on how it occurred and why initial denials were issued. The administration now faces mounting pressure to address the fallout, as the incident threatens to undermine confidence in Trump’s national security team just months into his term. For now, the focus remains on the leaked texts—and the question of whether accountability will follow.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)