Secret US military plans leaked on group chat

The White House on Monday confirmed that top Trump administration officials inadvertently included a journalist in a group chat about US military plans.

The chat on the Signal messaging app about upcoming military strikes reportedly included several members of President Donald Trump's cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

The editor of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, published a story on Monday in which he said he initially thought it could not be real.

"I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans," he wrote.

Goldberg was in the group chat where plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen were discussed.

On March 15, the US targeted rebel strongholds in Yemen.

Goldberg wrote that he had hours of advance notice via the group chat. He was still under the impression the chat group was fake, but when the US strikes on Yemen were reported, he realized it was real.

"Having come to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours before, I removed myself from the Signal group," he wrote.

On Monday, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the AFP news agency, "The message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain."