You work as a journalist. And at a time when the administration you cover is not at all sympathetic to the publication of which you are the editor-in-chief. Nevertheless, one day the president's national security adviser adds you to a secret chat, 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.
That's exactly what happens to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the renowned publication “The Atlantic“. The case is reminiscent of the plot of a not-so-good and realistic political thriller, and it also reveals the strange way in which the Donald Trump administration works and communicates.
„Small group“ to discuss the attack
It all begins on March 11 - four days before the United States struck Houthi positions in Yemen. Then 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 passes through Suez. 40 percent of European trade passes through it. There is a real risk that the public will not understand this and why it is necessary. The strongest reason to do it, as the President of the United States says, is to send a message”. But Vance disagrees: “I’m not sure the president realizes how inconsistent that is with his message to Europe right now. There’s an additional risk that we’re going to see a moderate to large spike in oil prices. I’m willing to support the consensus of the team and keep those concerns to myself. But there’s a strong case for holding off for a month, working on the messaging of why it’s important, seeing what happens with the economy, etc.”
Ultimately, the defense secretary responds that it would be really hard to explain to the public why this attack is being carried out, since “nobody knows who the Houthis are.” So Hegseth suggests the message should be: “1. Biden failed; 2. They’re funded by Iran.” Vance agrees, but still notes: “I just hate saving Europe again.“
By this point, Goldberg realizes that the conversations have a “high degree of plausibility“. However, he still doubts their authenticity - after all, who would let him be present in such a chat for so long unnoticed.
“That's when I realized the chat was almost certainly real“
Everything becomes clear on March 15. According to Hegseth's messages, the strikes will be carried out at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time. At that hour, the journalist gets in his car, opens X and begins searching for posts from Yemen. Minutes later, there are already signals of explosions.
Congratulations and emojis with the American flag, fists and fire begin to rain down in the general chat. At this point, Goldberg already understands that the chat “almost certainly“ is real and leaves it.
The journalist sends inquiries to all ministries represented by their heads of communication. The spokesman for the US National Security Council, Brian Hughes, confirms the authenticity of the chat. Vice President Vance's office indicates 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.