WASHINGTON – Democrats are lambasting top Trump administration officials who shared detailed secret plans in a group chat that included a journalist on a commercial messaging platform.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, seemingly accidentally, added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a chat on the Signal messaging app where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed a U.S. strike on Iran-backed militants in Yemen, Goldberg revealed in an article Monday.
“From an operational security perspective, this is the highest level of f**kup imaginable,” former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote on X. “These people cannot keep America safe.”
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate called for investigations into the blunder and slammed the administration for lax security practices.
“This is reckless, irresponsible and dangerous,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Signal – available to anyone in the Apple and Android app stores – is not approved by the government for classified communications. Its use by leading Trump national security officials leaves an opening for U.S. adversaries like China, Iran and Russia, national security experts say.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – who Trump repeatedly called to imprison for using a private email server for business as secretary of state – posted on X: “You have got to be kidding me.”
“This is a clown show… It’s unprecedented, and frankly, Pete Hegseth should be fired,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin. “This is a major, major breach that has put the lives of millions of Americans overseas in jeopardy.”
Goldberg wrote that he was accidentally added to the Signal chat titled “Houthi PC small group” earlier this month. The group included users whose names matched Trump’s top officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Brian McCormack, a member of the National Security Council.
Shortly before the U.S. launched a wave of strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen on March 15, Hegseth sent a message with operational information about the strikes including their targets and what weapons would be used, Goldberg wrote. He realized the chat was legitimate when the strikes hit Yemen at the time Hegseth indicated they would in the chat.
Former U.S. national security officials told USA TODAY that all the top Trump administration officials involved were extremely reckless in having these kinds of conversations on Signal.
Republicans respond
Republican leaders in Congress said the incident shouldn’t happen again.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. told reporters: “we gotta run it to ground, figure out what went on there.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at the Capitol Monday that the “administration is addressing what happened” and said “they’re going to track that down and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
However, he added: “What you did see, though, was top level officials doing their job, doing it well, and executing on a plan with precision.”
Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton, criticized the security lapse on CNN Monday afternoon.
I was shocked, and I really I was without words,” Bolton, who served as UN ambassador under President George W. Bush, said. “I couldn’t imagine anybody would use Signal.”
Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Josh Meyer and Tom Vanden Brook contributed.
