Members of US President Donald Trump’s inner circle leaked details of a bombing campaign in the Middle East to a prominent journalist after accidentally adding him to a Signal group chat, a report has revealed.

The extraordinary breach was revealed by The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a story on Tuesday which revealed he had been included in a group chat that featured information on forthcoming strikes on the Houthi group in Yemen, including “about targets, weapons the US would be deploying and attack sequencing”.

The Trump administration officials, including vice-president JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, discussed “imminent war plans” and highly sensitive information in the Signal group chat, named “Houthi PC small group”.

Seemingly unbeknownst to them, Goldberg had been earlier accidentally added to the group chat and was reading the messages.

This was confirmed by the National Security Council, which said the message chain “appears to be authentic”.

The breach has been criticised across the political aisle, with Minority Leader of the US Senate Chuck Schumer labelling it “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence” he has seen, and Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed saying it an “egregious failure of operational security and common sense”.

When asked by a journalist how it could have happened, Hegseth didn’t directly answer the question and instead angrily attacked the journalist, describing Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist”.

‘Fascinating policy discussion’

In his story, Goldberg said that on 11 March he received a Signal invite request from a user called Michael Waltz, the same name as Trump’s national security adviser, and that he initially thought it was an impersonator.

Two days later, Goldberg was added to the group chat with 18 users by Waltz, including Vance, Rubio, a number of National Security Council officials and Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator, Steve Witkoff.

“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 said.

“I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior US officials, up to and including the vice president.”

The group chat then featured some “fascinating policy discussion”, Goldberg said, around potential US bombings of the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.

This culminated by a message by Hegseth on 15 March titled “TEAM UPDATE” that The Atlantic chose not to publish.

“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, Central Command’s area of responsibility,” Goldberg said.

Just over two hours after team update message, it was publicly revealed the US was bombing Houthi targets in Yemen.

Upon realising that the Signal group chat was likely real, Goldberg left it, and a National Security Council spokesperson confirmed it was real.

“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” the spokesperson told The Atlantic.

“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials.”

The perils of the messaging apps

Trump confidante and lead of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk responded to the story by posting on X: “Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of the Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there.”

Trump was asked about the story earlier on Tuesday but said he knew “nothing about it”.

In the story, Goldberg raised concerns that the creator of the Signal group chat may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act in relation to the handling of national defence information, and around the fact that Signal has not been approved by the US government for sharing classified information.

The story also asks questions around whether using the encrypted and disappearing messaging app violates federal record laws.

These are similar concerns that were raised by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) in a report on the use of messaging apps by government workers.

The report found that many government employees are using messaging apps, such as Signal, without proper rules in place, and that the use of disappearing messages function may hamper transparency and go against Freedom of Information rules.