Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
Last month, Jeffery Goldberg, Editor-In-Chief of The Atlantic, released an article titled The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans. In the beginning of the article, Goldberg mentions the world found out the U.S. was going to bomb Yemen at 2 p.m. but he knew two hours beforehand when he got a text message telling him about the plans. Goldberg makes it clear he thought it was a hoax until the bombing started. The article spread like wildfire across the nation.
Goldberg details how politician Michael Waltz sent him a request on a messaging app called Signal, where the war plans were discussed. “I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz,” Goldberg wrote in his article. “I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists…”
The alleged group chat was called “Houthi PC Small Group.” Many people have brought up questions about the accuracy of the group chat’s existence, but proven facts have come to light to support Goldberg’s article. One of them includes a member of the group chat labeled as JD Vance said he’d be out for the day due to an economic event in Michigan, and it’s been proven Vance was in Michigan on the day he said.
According to Goldberg’s article, Secretary of State Pete Hegseth posted into the chat detailed plans on where the U.S. military was going to strike, weapons to be used, and other pieces of information that could be used to harm the U.S. military. Goldberg wrote that he was refraining from using direct quotes out of an abundance of caution to prevent the information from being seen by adversaries of the U.S.
It wasn’t until after the strike and text messages praising the attacks that Goldberg realized the group chat was more than likely real. The praises included one message with three emojis including a fist and an American flag. Another message included a fire along with an interview Waltz gave.
“Waltz and the other Cabinet-level officials were already potentially violating government policy and the law simply by texting one another about the operation. But when Waltz added a journalist—presumably by mistake—to his principals committee, he created new security and legal issues,” Goldberg wrote in his article.
Goldberg posted a follow-up article titled Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal after the Trump Administration downplayed the incident. Goldberg quoted an answer Hegseth gave when a reporter asked about the chat in the article, ‘“Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that.”’ Goldberg also included detailed plans and an anonymous phone number at the time from the group chat under Hegseth’s name to prove his involvement. Goldberg goes further by highlighting how it was rather lucky for them that it was a journalist they added into the chat instead of someone who would use this information against them. The Trump Administration continues to downplay and deflect involvement in group chat.
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