White House accidentally shares top secret war plan against Houthi with journalist

An American journalist was accidentally placed in a chat group discussing top-secret military plans to attack the Houthi armed group in Yemen by senior officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump.

According to CNN on March 24, Mr. Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic magazine, was suddenly added to a chat group of top US government officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (from left) at the White House on March 13, 2025

Several other officials were also present in the group chat, including Counselor Stephen Miller, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

Mr Goldberg said he was taken into a Signal chat called “Houthi PC Small Group” and realized that 18 members of the group were from Mr Trump’s cabinet. Signal is a commercial chat app that is not authorized by the US government to be used to share sensitive information.

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In The Atlantic , Editor-in-Chief Goldberg said he had removed sensitive information from the article, including the identity of a senior CIA officer and current operational information.

The White House has confirmed the leak of classified information. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed the information on March 24.

"This appears to be an authentic text message thread and we are looking into whether a phone number was inadvertently added. This text message thread is a testament to deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The continued success of the campaign against the Houthis demonstrates that there is no threat to the military or national security," Hughes said.

On the same day, US President Donald Trump said he was unaware of the incident and was not a fan of The Atlantic magazine. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later emphasized: "The President still has full confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz."

According to The Guardian , the incident is likely to raise further concerns about the reliability of the Trump administration’s intelligence. Security and intelligence commentators in the US described the operational security breach as unprecedented, including the use of a commercial chat app and the inadvertent inclusion of Mr Goldberg in the chat group.

In the US Senate on March 24, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move "one of the most shocking breaches of military intelligence in a very long time" and called on Republicans to seek "a full investigation into how this happened, the damage it caused, and how we can avoid it in the future."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nha-trang-vo-tinh-chia-se-ke-hoach-chien-tranh-tuyet-mat-tai-houthi-cho-nha-bao-185250325073840926.htm