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Top US officials, including the vice-president and defence secretary, accidentally shared classified details about last week’s military strikes on Yemen with a journalist in an unofficial messaging group, in a stunning breach of security that triggered uproar in Washington.
JD Vance and Pete Hegseth were among the members of a Signal chat group that discussed operational details of the most significant military action taken by President Donald Trump since he returned to the White House and blasted European allies for “freeloading” off the US.
The apparent security breach came after Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic magazine, was added to the chat by national security adviser Mike Waltz ahead of last week’s attacks on Yemen-based Houthi rebels after they threatened to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthis launched scores of attacks on merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the Red Sea last year, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in response to Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
An account of the messages — which expressed disdain for European allies and suggested asking them to pay for the operation — was published on Monday.
The veracity of the chat was confirmed by the National Security Council. “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” said NSC spokesman Brian Hughes.
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy co-ordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our service members or our national security.”
According to Goldberg, Vance suggested the threat from the Houthis was more of a European issue as only a small fraction of US trade ran through the Suez Canal. He expressed concerns that the US attack was a “mistake” that risked a “spike in oil prices” while “bailing Europe out”.
A number of members of the group suggested Europe could be asked to compensate the US for the strikes. Waltz said he was working with government departments “to determine how to compile the cost associated and levy them on the Europeans”.
Another contributor, who appeared to be Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, suggested: “If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, wrote that he shared the vice-president’s “loathing of European freeloading”.
Trump told reporters on Monday he did not “know anything about” the leaked chat before attacking the outlet that published the story. “I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic, to me it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine.”
The messages triggered a firestorm in the US capital, with Democratic politicians blasting the Trump administration for “incompetence”.
Jack Reed, the Rhode Island senator and top Democrat on the armed services committee of the upper chamber of Congress said: “If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen.”
JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, wrote on X: “The incompetence of the Trump administration is putting us at risk at home and abroad.”
In a rare instance of criticism, Republican politicians also slammed the exchange. “Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels — and certainly not to those without security clearances, including reporters. Period,” Mike Lawler, a Republican congressman from New York, wrote on X on Monday. “Safeguards must be put in place to ensure this never happens again.”
Senior EU diplomats said Vance’s comments in particular reflected his deep animosity towards Europe, but that it was still shocking to see how much he loathed US support for the continent and its interests.
“It’s unbelievable how warped his thinking is [on the benefits of bombing Yemen],” said one EU diplomat.
“It’s bonkers,” said another. “Really amazing.”
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