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After various senior members of the Trump administration denied sharing “war plans” — classified or otherwise — in a Signal group to which they had inadvertently added The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine is now releasing additional details about the chat’s contents previously withheld over national security concerns.
The Atlantic on Tuesday published the full contents of what Goldberg and other members of the chat received from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth roughly two hours before airstrikes began against Houthi targets in Yemen. The message includes specific information on timing, aircraft, and munitions of the operation — information that would normally be highly classified and only distributed through secure communication channels.
At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, “TEAM UPDATE:”
The text beneath this began, “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. The Hegseth text continues:
“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”
“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)”
[…]
“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.”
Soon after Hegseth sent the message, the chat, as shared in a screenshot by Goldberg, reads that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz “set disappearing message time to 4 weeks.” (Hegseth and others involved in the chat have already been sued over the breach, as Signal’s disappearing message function could mean the discussion allegedly violates the Federal Records Act.)
Later in the day, after several rounds of congratulations were shared in the chat, Hegseth wrote “Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was quick to respond to the release of the messages on Wednesday, trying to split hairs about details of “WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP” being “war” plans. “The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,’” she wrote. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”
Waltz, whom Goldberg says added him to the chat, added: “No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests.”
Trump, the White House, and the officials on the chat have all denied that anything classified was shared, or that war plans were discussed. “There was no classified information, as I understand it,” Trump said from the White House on Tuesday. “They used an app, if you want to call it an app, that a lot of people use, a lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use.”
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” Hegseth reiterated from Hawaii later in the day. “Nobody’s texting war plans. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
The receipts provided by Goldberg tell a different story.
