Between March 11 and 15, 2025, senior Trump administration officials used a Signal group chat to coordinate Operation Rough Rider, the U.S. air campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, after his phone stored Goldberg’s number under White House spokesman Brian Hughes’s contact. The White House National Security Council confirmed the chat was authentic. On March 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details including targets, weapons, aircraft, missile launches, strike sequencing, and attack times; the transcript also named an active CIA officer, whose identity The Atlantic withheld.
The Atlantic published the exchange on March 24 and the full relevant transcript on March 26, after officials disputed whether classified information had been shared. Signal was not an approved platform for classified or nonpublic government information, and the group was reportedly configured to delete messages after one or four weeks, raising federal records-preservation concerns. A Pentagon investigation began on April 3 at the request of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Subsequent reporting described additional official Signal chats, including one organized by Hegseth that reportedly included his wife, brother, and lawyer, while American Oversight sued officials over alleged records-law violations. Officials denied that classified information appeared in the chats, leaving legal liability and accountability contested.
