The Atlantic on Wednesday published additional text messages from the Signal group chat of top Trump national security officials, underscoring a massive breach in operational security as specific sensitive information about the Houthi attack was shared in the chat before it was carried out.
The messages also rebut the claim from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Trump administration officials that war plans were not discussed on the chain. In a message sent at 11:44 a.m. ET and published by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris, Hegseth shares operational details about the strikes: “Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch,” Hegseth wrote.
Top US officials have said the information shared in the text messages was not classified.
Hegseth goes on to share the plans in extraordinary detail, according to The Atlantic:
- 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, Strike 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)”
- “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
That information, according to The Atlantic, was received “two hours before the scheduled start of the bombing of Houthi positions.”
“If this information—particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen—had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face,” Goldberg and Harris wrote.
National security adviser Mike Waltz later texted to confirm that the target was in a building that collapsed and the strike was successful. And later in the day, Hegseth confirmed to the group that more strikes were coming.
Moments after The Atlantic published the text messages, the White House continued to push back and seek to discredit Goldberg’s reporting, though the National Security Council has verified the authenticity of the text thread.
