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The Trump administration is facing political uproar after the White House confirmed that a journalist was inadvertently added to an unsecure group chat in which US national security officials planned a military strike in Yemen.<\/p>\n The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported<\/a> that he was included on a Signal message group where Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth were apparently among members.<\/p>\n He said he saw classified military plans for US strikes on Houthi rebels, including weapons packages, targets and timing, two hours before the bombs struck. <\/p>\n The report sparked a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and concerns among several Republicans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Goldberg said he was added to the message chain, apparently by accident, after receiving a connection request from someone who appeared to be White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. <\/p>\n “If they were going to pick an errant phone number, I mean at least it wasn’t somebody who supported the Houthis, because they were actually handing out information that I believe could have endangered the lives of American service people who were involved in that operation,” he told PBS in an interview. <\/p>\n President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday afternoon that he was not aware of the Atlantic article.<\/p>\n “The attacks on the Houthis have been highly successful and effective,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. <\/p>\n “President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.”<\/p>\n The defence secretary also defended the military operation discussed in the chat, citing its success. When pressed by reporters, Hegseth criticised Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited” journalist and resisted questions about the content of the messages. <\/p>\n House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said the breach was a mistake, but argued that the chat showed “top level officials doing their job, doing it well”.<\/p>\n Democratic lawmakers demanded an investigation, casting the episode as a national security scandal.<\/p>\n “This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence that I have read about in a very, very long time,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.<\/p>\n Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said his panel planned to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n “It’s definitely a concern,” he added. “It appears that mistakes were made.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On 11 March, Atlantic editor-in-chief Goldberg writes in his article that he received a connection request on the encrypted messaging app Signal from an account that purported to be Waltz’s.<\/p>\n He said he initially wondered if the group chat messages might be a hoax until four days later, Saturday 15 March, when he was sitting in a supermarket car park, watching Signal communications about a strike.<\/p>\n When he checked X for updates about Yemen, he wrote, he was stunned to see reports of explosions in the capital city of Sanaa.<\/p>\nCritics call for investigation over leak<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Vance disagrees with Trump<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n