White House pushes back at war plans group chat story

The White House on Tuesday sought to downplay the significance of a journalist being added to a group chat of administration officials discussing plans for attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued in a post on X that no “war plans” were discussed in the chat on the Signal app, echoing comments on Monday night from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. She also asserted that no classified material was sent to the thread.

Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic who was included in the group chat by mistake, has said war plans were discussed in the chat.

“He was texting attack plans. When targets were going to be targeted; how they were going to be targeted; who was at the targets; when the next sequence of attacks was happening,” Goldberg said on CNN on Monday night.

Leavitt, who dismissed Goldberg as “well-known for his sensationalist spin, also said the White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on platforms administration officials can use to communicate. It’s unclear if Signal, an app that offers encryption as well as features like disappearing messages, is an approved platform.

“As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread,” Leavitt posted. 

“Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective,” she added. “Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”

Lawmakers and national security experts expressed alarm at Goldberg’s revelation that he was added to the group of administration officials, with some calling for firings over the incident.

The National Security Council on Monday confirmed the authenticity of the group chat.

Updated at 9:24 a.m. EDT