The Trump Administration Also Texted Me Its War Plans
Maybe it will be faster for journalists who DIDN'T get the war plans to speak up
Yesterday, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg shared an incredible story about how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accidentally sent him detailed, highly classified information about an upcoming military strike in Yemen. Apparently, top-level Trump administration officials used Signal — a commercially available app mostly used by teenagers for sexting — to create a high-level coordination group called a “principals committee”…though they misspelled “principal”. Also, they accidentally added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. And they seemed to not have noticed that Goldberg was there. And then Pete Hegseth sent sensitive information about a pending military strike to the entire group. Also — not for nothin’ — our National Security Adviser uses emojis like he’s an eighth-grade girl.
Many people are shocked by this story. I am not, however, because I, too, was mistakenly included in this Signal group. Like Goldberg, I don’t why I was added — there seems to have been some other Jeffrey they were trying to loop in. Goldberg redacted parts of the group chat, but below, I reveal key portions of the conversation that Goldberg omitted.
The Houthis/Red Sea Situation, But With Jokes
The Houthis have stepped up attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and the US has responded with lethal force. Below are questions and answers about the situation, so that when the topic comes up you can do something other than nod, say “well, it’s complicated,” and then chan…
This is absolutely hilarious and deserves a Pulitzer nomination.
This story reminded me of
what happened in Puerto Rico in 2019 when we had to reveal a Telegram chat with then governor Rosselló and his aides. I was the first reporter who broke that story Comments were so repulsive that the entire population protested and in 2 weeks he had resigned.