Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed the time, weapons and target of a US military operation before it took place (Picture: Reuters/REX)
‘War plans’ shared by top Trump officials on an infiltrated Signal group chat have been published for the first time.
Ever since Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he’d accidentally been included in a group chat where plans for air strikes against Houthi militias were discussed, Trump’s team has denied the information was ‘classified’.
‘Nobody was texting war plans’, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump himself weighed in to say: ‘It wasn’t classified information.’
But the messages, published today by The Atlantic, tell a different story.
Opening the chat, national security adviser Mike Waltz said he was ‘establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis’.
The Houthis are an Iran-backed militia in Yemen, from where they have been launching missiles against US ally Israel and western shipping through the Red Sea.
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A ship fires missiles at an undisclosed location, after U.S. President Donald Trump launched military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released on March 15, 2025. U.S. Central Command/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY
The Trump administration released this clip of a navy ship firing missiles at the Houthis after the mission was complete (Picture: US Central Command/Reuters)
In the chat, Hegseth, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, discussed whether to move ahead with air strikes against the Houthis in order reopen shipping lanes. They agreed.
Then came almost minute-by-minute detail of US military operations on March 15.
‘Weather is favourable’, Hegseth said at 11.44am. ‘Just CONFIRMED w/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.’
In half an hour, he said, F-18 fighter jets would set off to launch a strike on a ‘target terrorist’ two hours after his message was sent.
By 2.15pm, more F-18s would have been dispatched, and drones would be ‘definitely’ dropping bombs, he told the group.
‘I will say a prayer for victory’, Vance replied.
epa11985320 People inspect the damage around a building after US airstrikes in Sana'a, Yemen, 24 March 2025. The Ministry of Health, controlled by the Houthi administration in Sana'a, reported that at least one person was killed and some 15 others were injured in a US airstrike on a residential building in the Ma'in district. EPA/OSAMAH YAHYA
Air strikes have continued since the initial plans were revealed (Picture: EPA)
What did the Signal messages say?
Hegseth:
‘TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Centcom, or Central Command, is the military’s combatant command for the Middle East.
‘1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
‘1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)
‘1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)
‘1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)
‘1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.
‘MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)
‘We are currently clean on OPSEC”—that is, operational security.
‘Godspeed to our Warriors.’
Later, Waltz revealed the ‘first target’ – the Houthis’ ‘top missile guy’ – had walked into a building before it collapsed from the US military’s first strike.
But it may not have gone to plan had Goldberg been ‘someone hostile to American interests—or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media’, the journalist wrote in The Atlantic today.
Maybe, as Trump’s team says, the information revealed to Goldberg wasn’t classified’, this could have meant ‘the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds’.
Goldberg said: ‘The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.’
The US National Security Council has confirmed the text chain ‘appears to be authentic’.
Senator Gary Peters, the most senior Democrat on the Senate security committee, said: ‘This is a flagrant failure and a huge breach of national security.
‘Our servicemembers deserve more from those in command. The carelessness of this level is simply unacceptable.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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