Social media critics could scarcely believe their eyes when they read that Donald Trump’s inexperienced Defense Secretary and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth discussed secret airstrke plans against Houthis in Yemen earlier this month in a group chat that accidentally included a prominent journalist.
The chat occurred on Hegseth’s Signal account, an encrypted messaging app available to the public. The chat, believed to have been launched by White House National Security adviser Mike Waltz, involved top officials and Cabinet members to discuss airstrikes.
Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic revealed the massive screw up in a column entitled “The Trump administration just accidentally texted me its war plans” in his publication Monday. He kept the extremely sensitive intelligence secret — which Hegseth was incapable of doing — until almost 10 days days after the March 15 attack.
“I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling,” Goldberg wrote.
Critics went to town, including many who called for Hegseth to step down — or be fired. Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hilary Clinton sputtered in a post on X: “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Hegseth,” “Resign,” “National Security” and “Defense Secretary” were all trending on X Monday.
The State Department refused to answer questions about the goof to reporters.
New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim said in a post on X that the bungle could be an “episode on [the TV program] Veep if it wasn’t so dangerous and just plain dumb. Really dumb and epically irresponsible. People need to lose their jobs over this. Preferably Hegseth.”
Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffery called the potentially disastrous accident “disgraceful” in comments on TikTok.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said the group text procedure “almost certainly” broke the law.
Hegseth later Monday insisted to a reporter later Monday that nothing was leaked and attacked Goldberg as a journalist who deals in “garbage.”
A spokesperson for the National Security Council told Goldberg that the communication he had “appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Hegseth was notably incensed when he was a Fox News host about Hillary Clinton’s private-server emails when she was secretary of state, and argued that she immediately be fired.
President Donald Trump claimed he knew “nothing” about the breach. “What happened?” Trump asked a reporter, looking confused.
He then attacked the publication, saying: “ I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic ... I think it's not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about” the leaked information.
Some critics worried about what other vital information may have been compromised given the slipshod leak to The Atlantic.
Others just had a laugh.
