A Pentagon-wide email revealed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the Signal messaging app to discuss critical war plans with top defense officials despite being warned about the app’s security “vulnerability.”
NPR’s Tom Bowman reported that Pentagon employees were notified via email that “a vulnerability has been identified in the Signal messenger application.” The warning reportedly came a week before The Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg alleged that national security adviser Mike Waltz mistakenly added him to a Signal group chat discussing airstrikes in Yemen. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Middle East and Ukraine negotiator Steve Witkoff were also included on the chat, according to reports.
Signal is an encrypted messaging service that does not track or store user data, but Pentagon regulations have not classified it for use and specifically state that messaging apps such as Signal are “NOT authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information.”
However, that did not stop Waltz from using the app to discuss sensitive information with high-ranking military officials, and the shocking oversight has incited calls for an investigation into why classified information was put at risk.
It is illegal to mishandle, misuse, or abuse classified information under U.S. law, and in a Monday report Goldberg suggested that Waltz may have violated the Espionage Act with the security breach.
According to Goldberg, he was added to the discussion two hours before U.S. troops launched attacks against the Houthi militia in Yemen. He was then privy to the texts, which included Waltz texting emojis of a fist, an American flag, and a flame to celebrate the attack. Vance reportedly wrote, “I will say a prayer for victory.” Witkoff added five other emojis: two prayer symbols, a curled bicep, and two more American flags.
Goldberg said he then left the group chat.
Hegseth posted key details about the strikes in the chat, including information about targets, weapons, and attack sequencing, reported Goldberg.
“The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East,” he wrote.
Goldberg told The New York Times that the discussion “sent a chill down my spine.”
Goldberg added that the level of sensitivity around the security information made him question its authenticity. Yet once bombs dropped in Yemen, and Hegseth and the others celebrated via text, he was convinced that it was real. The National Security Council also confirmed its validity.
Goldberg said he could not believe that the national security adviser would be so “reckless” that he inadvertently included him. He has been targeted as one of President Trump’s most-hated journalists and has been called a “horrible, radical-left lunatic” and a “sleazebag” by the president.
Trump suggested that the “glitch” was only a minor snafu and defended Waltz. He said the adviser was a “good man” who “learned a lesson.”
Hegseth said that the text chain was “genuine” but claimed “nobody was texting war plans” despite evidence of the chat.
Before Hegseth became defense secretary he routinely criticized former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for using a private email server. Clinton reposted the article on X Monday with the comment: “You have got to be kidding me.”
