Oops! US officials added a journalist in their war chat

Updated March 28, 2025, 10:32 a.m. | By East Coast Breakfast / Skyye Ndlovu

US officials accidentally added a journalist to their private group where they were actively planning airstrikes on Yemen.

Signal. It’s the encrypted messaging app of choice for spies, diplomats, and, apparently, high-ranking US officials who have a very loose understanding of operational security.

But what happens when someone fumbles the invite list?

Well, if you’re Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, you might wake up one morning to find yourself in a Signal group chat discussing real-time military strikes on Yemen – featuring what can only be described as an Avengers-style lineup of Trump administration officials.

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The chat in question, charmingly titled “Houthi PC small group”, included vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, national security advisor Mike Waltz, and a handful of others.

In reality, they probably shouldn’t be doing their war planning in a Signal chat like it’s a fantasy football draft.

But alas, they did. And Goldberg? He just sat there, quietly collecting classified receipts like a political Gossip Girl.

The messages (now made public, because obviously) included details of active airstrikes, a live countdown to F-18 takeoffs, and a casual “Godspeed to our Warriors” from Hegseth, as if they were launching a new SpaceX rocket and not, you know, dropping bombs on another country.

Naturally, once the story broke, the officials involved scrambled to do damage control. Their defence? Totally fine, nothing to see here!

“No classified information was discussed,” they insisted, as the full transcript of their real-time airstrike commentary was being passed around on X like a leaked celebrity text scandal.

One particular standout was Vance's triumphant message after taking out a target, who was literally walking into his girlfriend’s apartment when the missiles hit.

His response? A celebratory, “Excellent.”

Okay, Thanos.

BREAKING: Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic @TheAtlantic has just released the FULL Text Message Chain.

I have provided all texts in this post and the thread below:

CHECK MATE! 🧵 pic.twitter.com/UvSj4jJdHi
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 26, 2025

The Atlantic initially hesitated to publish the full chat log, fearing it might compromise US national security.

However, after watching administration officials downplay the whole thing, they pulled a dramatic U-turn.

Their argument? If senior US officials are planning airstrikes in unsecured group chats, the public deserves to know just how recklessly things are being handled.

And they weren’t wrong. If even one wrong person had gained access to this chat in that crucial two-hour window, American pilots could have been in danger.

Honestly, who needs spies when the government is out here adding journalists to their war chats by mistake?

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This whole debacle raises some important questions.

Should high-ranking officials maybe, just maybe, use actual secure communication channels instead of a group chat that sounds like a bad Call of Duty clan?

Who was responsible for the click that let Jeffrey Goldberg into America’s least exclusive secret war council?

Is there a way to get invited to the next blunder just for entertainment purposes?

One thing’s for sure, though: this is a security breach for the history books.