You work as a journalist. And at a time when the administration you cover is not at all sympathetic to the publication you are the editor-in-chief of. Nevertheless, one day the president's national security adviser adds you to a secret chat room, in which, together with the secretary of state, the vice president, the head of intelligence and a number of other cabinet representatives, you reveal secret plans to strike a foreign rebel group.
This is exactly what happens to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the renowned publication “The Atlantic“. The case both reminds me of the plot of a not particularly good and realistic political thriller, and reveals the strange way in which the Donald Trump administration works and communicates.
“Small Group“ to discuss the attack
It all began on March 11, four days before the United States was to strike Houthi positions in Yemen. That's when Michael Waltz added Goldberg to the chat app Signal. Although he was surprised and doubted whether he was talking about Donald Trump's national security adviser, Goldberg accepted the invitation. Two days later, he was already part of a group chat that included Waltz - "Houthi PC small group".
It was in this group of profiles, whose names, initials, or profile pictures match those of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President J.D. Vance, Director of Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsett, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump's Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Special Envoy for the Middle East and Ukraine Steve Witkoff, and several other representatives of the executive branch, that they began discussing the upcoming attacks on the Houthis.
Goldberg and his colleagues think this is some kind of disinformation campaign or an attempt to discredit the media. Ultimately: Who would believe that the security chiefs of the world's largest nuclear power would be discussing war plans in a Signal chat?
Vance is against it
In the next few hours, Jeffrey Goldberg witnesses not only classified information that he says he will never reveal because it would endanger the security of his homeland, but also something that has never been made public before: J.D. Vance opposing a Trump decision. "I think we are making a mistake," he writes. "Three percent of U.S. trade goes through Suez. 40 percent of European trade goes through it. There is a real risk that the public will not understand this and why it is necessary. The strongest reason for doing it, as the President of the United States says, is to send a message." But Vance does not entirely agree: "I am not sure the President realizes how inconsistent this is with his message to Europe right now. There is an additional risk that we will see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am prepared to support the consensus of the team and keep those concerns to myself. But there is a strong case for delaying it for a month, working on the messaging of why it is important, seeing what happens to the economy, etc.“
Ultimately, the defense secretary responds that it will indeed be difficult to explain to the public why this attack is being carried out, since “nobody knows who the Houthis are“. So Hegseth suggests that the message be this: “1. Biden failed; 2. They are funded by Iran.“ Vance agrees, but still notes: “I just hate bailing out Europe again.“
By this point, Goldberg realizes that the talks have “a high degree of credibility“. However, he continues to doubt their authenticity - after all, who would let him be present in such a chat for so long unnoticed.
„That's when I realized that the chat was almost certainly real“
Everything became clear on March 15. According to Hegseth's messages, the strikes would be carried out at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time. At that hour, the journalist got into his car, opened X and began searching for posts from Yemen. Minutes later, there were already signals of explosions.
Congratulations and emojis with the American flag, fists and fire began to rain down in the general chat. At this point, Goldberg already understood that the chat was „almost certainly“ real and left it.
The journalist sent inquiries to all ministries, represented by his communication managers. National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed the authenticity of the chat. Vice President Vance's office said that despite his messages, he fully agrees with Trump's foreign policy.
Violation of laws?
According to lawyers, discussing classified information on an application like Signal is a serious violation of security rules. In 2016, Donald Trump demanded the arrest of Hillary Clinton because she used a private server for her official email communication. Clinton herself reacted to the “Atlantic“ article and wrote: “You have to be kidding“.
Donald Trump commented that he knew nothing about the case. But he used the opportunity to attack the publication. “I'm not a big fan of “The Atlantic“, to me it's a magazine that's going away. I think it's not much of a magazine“, he said.
But this “not much of a magazine“ could cause him problems, because Democrats, as well as lawyers, are already demanding an investigation into the case. Former Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director Leon Panetta commented: “This really needs to be investigated. Because it could be a violation of our espionage laws.“ However, Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton does not think there will be serious consequences. Trump would only punish someone if the situation became dangerous for him, Bolton commented.