I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.”
Alarming disclosures on Monday of improper, dangerous sharing of live war plans on a commercial messaging service show a serious breach of protocol within Donald Trump’s inner circle. Someone’s head should roll, though that seems improbable for Trump loyalists.
The fact that the disclosure came from Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, inadvertently added to the group texts, put the breach well beyond extraordinary and into the realm of the absurd.
Goldberg was added to the Signal group chat, but the intelligence agencies of this country’s foes obviously actively monitor such messages on a commercial space, however confidential, involving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Mario Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, as well as top national security officials. They have classified military channels and security protocols for exactly such a purpose, yet they chose not to use them.
Goldberg wrote that it was he who called national security officials to let them know, adding that he was withholding all the detailed plans he heard two hours before U.S. bombs fell on Houthi encampments in Yemen on March 15.
“U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling,” Goldberg wrote.
As defense experts and members of Congress were quick to note, discoverable discussions of military plans in real time puts the lives of U.S. servicemen at risk as well as giving the intended enemy heads-up notice to adjust. In that context, for those top officials to be sharing obviously live, classified war information is a violation of law.
The White House confirmed the disclosures, but Trump said he knew nothing about it, instead deriding The Atlantic. Hegseth called Goldberg a “so-called journalist” and, when pressed, said that “nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
Trump and his administration have been hard-edged about leaks and any breech of classified documents by others, including Hillary Clinton, though chary about discussing their own mishandling of classified documents. But none of those incidents involved live military operational data.
Why is Team Trump using a commercial service and using their phones rather than in secure facilities? How was Goldberg added or better, why didn’t anyone notice? How much other classified traffic is happening on Signal, open to foreign intelligence, or how do we know that personal data files are not being shared in this fashion?
Who is going to lose a job over this, as any military officer would? Can you imagine if this had involved a non-Trump administration?
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Deny, deny, deny was the administration’s response after the story broke, along with character assassination of Goldberg. In other words they resorted to their standard playbook. They now blame the use of Signal on Biden because that’s what was loaded on the devices they took over on assuming power. If they’re so eager to destroy everything Biden what happened here? This is squarely on the current administration, especially because the Pentagon issued a warning on March 18th that NPR reported:
“A vulnerability has been identified in the Signal messenger application,” begins the department-wide email, dated March 18, obtained by NPR. The memo continues, “Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations.” ….. The March 18, 2025 Pentagon memo adds, “Please note: third-party messaging apps (e.g. Signal) are permitted by policy for unclassified accountability/recall exercises but are not approved to process or store non-public unclassified information.”
In a Senate hearing, Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia said, “and by the way, we will get the full transcript of this chain and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content.”
I subsequently learned the Signal chat in question happened on March 15th, three days before the Pentagon memo that NPR reported. Doesn’t absolve the administration though, they should have known since the vulnerabilities weren’t breaking news.
As to why the administration is actually using Signal, Moira Donegan, a Guardian US columnist, wrote in an opinion piece published today, March 26th: “the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which has become something of a handbook for the Trump regime, recommends using private apps to conduct official business, so as to evade records-keeping laws. Signal is an app that is marketed for its privacy and message-disappearing features …”