Signal War Plans Chat: Read Leaked Texts in Full

US News Reporter

On March 24 The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published an article claiming he was included, by an apparent accident, in a chat group on messaging app Signal where plans for American airstrikes on the Houthi militant group in Yemen were discussed. On Wednesday The Atlantic published more complete versions of the messages, with some redactions for security purposes, after President Trump said "it wasn't classified information."

The Pentagon referred Newsweek to the National Security Council when asked for comment on the apparent security lapse. The NSC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokesperson for the agency previously confirmed to Goldberg the Signal group chat "appears to be an authentic message chain."

Why It Matters

A wave of U.S. airstrikes hit Houthi targets on March 15 killing 53 people according to Yemen's health ministry, which is run by the group. Additional airstrikes followed in the subsequent days.

Details of U.S. military operations are not supposed to be conducted over publicly available platforms such as Signal, and a number of security experts have said the chat group could have violated the Espionage Act. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump focused heavily on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official business as secretary of state.

What To Know

Newsweek has reproduced all the Signal group messages that were published by The Atlantic, either by being written out by Goldberg or included in the article as screenshots. It is unclear what proportion of the messages The Atlantic chose to make public, and some details were kept secret for security reasons.

Thursday, March 13

White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz: "Team – establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.

"Pls provide the best staff POC [point of contact] from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx."

Friday, March 14

Waltz: "Team, you should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents guidance this morning in your high side inboxes.

"State and DOD, we developed suggested notification lists for regional Allies and partners. Joint Staff is sending this am a more specific sequence of events in the coming days and we will work w DOD to ensure COS [chief of staff], OVP [office of vice president] and POTUS [president of the United States] are briefed."

Vance: "Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake.

"3 percent of US trade runs through the suez [canal]. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary.

"The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message. But I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There's a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices.

"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."

Joe Kent: "There is nothing time sensitive driving the time line. We'll have the exact same options in a month.

"The Israelis will likely take strikes & therefore ask us for more support to replenish whatever they use against the Houthis. But that's a minor factor. I will send you the unclass data we pulled on BAM shipping."

Signal — Screenshot from the signal chat on the Houthis shared by The Atlantic. The Atlantic

Ratcliffe: "From CIA perspective, we are mobilizing assets to support now but a delay would not negatively impact us and additional time would be used to identify better starting points for coverage on Houthi leadership."

Hegseth: "VP: I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS. Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc). I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what – nobody knows who the Houthis are – which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded.

"Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. 2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza cease fire falls apart – and we don't get to start this on our own terms. We can manage both. We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should. This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered. But, we can easily pause. And if we do, I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC [operations security]. I welcome other thoughts."

Waltz: "The trade figures we have are 15% of global and 30% of container. It's difficult to break that down to US. Specific because much of the container either going through the red sea still or around the Cape of Good Hope our components going to Europe that turns into manufactured good for transatlantic trade to the United States.

"Whether we pull the plug or not today European navies do not have the capability to defend against the types of sophisticated, antiship, cruise missiles, and drones the Houthis are now using.

"So whether it's now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes. Per the president's request we are working with DOD and State to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans."

Waltz: "As we stated in the first PC we have a fundamental decision of allowing the sea lanes to remain closed or to re-open them now or later, we are the only ones with the capability unfortunately. From a messaging standpoint we absolutely ad this to of horribles on why the Europeans must invest in their defense."

JD Vance: "If you think we should do it let's go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.

"Let's just make sure our messaging is tight here. And if there are things we can do upfront to minimize risk to Saudi oil facilities we should do it.

Hegseth: "VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It's PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any, given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. I think we should go; but POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space."

SM [Stephen Miller]: "As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. EG, if Europe doesn't remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return."

Hegseth: "Agree."

Saturday, March 15

Hegseth: "TEAM UPDATE:

"TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED W/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.

"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, Stike 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)

15:36: "F-18 2nd Strike Starts - also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched."

"MORE TO FOLLOW per timeline. We are currently clean on OPSEC. Godspeed to our Warriors."

Vance: "I will say a prayer for victory."

Waltz: "VP. building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job."

Vance: "What?"

Waltz: "Typing too fast. The first target - their top missile guy - we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed."

Vance: "Excellent."

Waltz: Posted fist, American flag and fire emojis.

MAR: "Good Job Pete and your team!!"

Waltz: "The team in MAL did a great job as well."

SM: "Great work all. Powerful start."

Hegseth: "CENTCOM was/is on point. Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far."

Susie Wiles: "Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. God bless."

Steve Witkoff: Posted two hands praying, one flexed bicep and two American flag emojis.

TG: "Great work and effects!"

What People Are Saying

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reporters: "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."

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, on MSNBC: "The Secretary of Defense seems like a person who is unserious and is trying to deflect from the fact that he participated in a conversation on an unclassified messaging app that he probably shouldn't have participated in."

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the NSC, confirmed the veracity of the group text to Goldberg: "This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the 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."

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta called it: "A very serious mistake" that "could violate the espionage laws, but more importantly, could undermine our national security."

President Donald Trump claimed no knowledge of the incident: "I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it's a magazine that's going out of business. But I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?"

What Happens Next

Goldberg said he left the Signals chat group, so he will be unable to report on any additional conversation. It is unclear whether there will be an investigation into what went wrong.

Update 3/26/25, 9:40 a.m. ET: This story has been updated after additional messages were published by The Atlantic.