Signalgate: Pete Hegseth’s problematic passion for groupchats
Trump administration senior officials are facing harsh criticism after it was revealed that they had used the personal messaging app Signal to discuss highly classified military intelligence in a group chat. The chat, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out plans for an upcoming military strike in Yemen, inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, as a participant.
Though the rest of the chat’s participants – including national security advisor Michael Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – doubled down on insisting nothing improper had happened. But after details of a second chat emerged, even harsher scrutiny fell upon Hegseth, who was a Fox News anchor prior to Donald Trump appointing him as Defense Secretary.
Further investigations revealed that he had a startlingly accessible digital presence, raising questions over whether he’s left key classified information vulnerable to foreign adversaries.
Read on below our live updates as we track the fallout from the Signal group chat.
- Pete Hegseth reportedly spilled Yemen attack details in another Signal chat
- A beginner’s guide to using Signal
- Here’s what military planning usually looks like — and why it doesn’t include Signal
- Donald Trump explains how he thinks the military strike “call” added Jeffrey Goldberg.
- The Atlantic releases strike group chat messages
- The military strike groupchat scandal isn’t going away.
- Trump officials planned a military strike over Signal – with a magazine editor on the line