The White House says nothing classified was shared on Signal. Democrats
say that strains credulity
[March 27, 2025]
By AAMER MADHANI, STEPHEN GROVES, and DAVID KLEPPER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration struggled Wednesday to stem
the fallout from revelations that top national security officials
discussed sensitive attack plans over a messaging app and mistakenly
added a journalist to the chain.
The White House said the information shared through the publicly
available Signal app with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The
Atlantic magazine, was not classified, an assertion that Democrats said
strains credulity considering that it detailed plans for an upcoming
attack on Yemen's Houthis.
President Donald Trump during an Oval Office appearance to announce new
tariffs on imported vehicles seemed frustrated as reporters repeatedly
questioned him about the matter.
“I think it’s all a witch hunt,” Trump said.
The decision on determining whether the information is classified
ultimately lies with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who in the chain
listed weapons systems and a timeline for the attack — “THIS IS WHEN THE
FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP,” he wrote. The Houthis have been
wreaking havoc on vital Red Sea shipping lanes since November 2023 as
the Israel-Hamas war raged.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,
said the position that the Trump administration is staking out can be
described with one word: “Baloney.”
“When you describe time, place, type of armaments used: Do they think
the American public is stupid?” Warner said in an exchange with
reporters.
There are no signs that the controversy will fade soon for Trump, who
has said he stands by his national security team and has assailed the
reporter's credibility. At the same time, he has made clear his
preference for his team to discuss such operations in person and in more
secure settings, though it is not yet clear if changes will be
implemented as a result.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said he and Sen. Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat,
will send a letter to the Trump administration requesting an expedited
inspector general investigation into the use of Signal.
They are also calling for a classified briefing with a top
administration official “who actually has the facts and can speak on
behalf of the administration.”
"The information, as published recently, appears to me to be of such a
sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it
classified,” Wicker said.
Asked about the call for an inspector general probe, Trump replied, “It
doesn’t bother me.”
But White House officials continue to insist no classified material was
discussed in the March 13 to March 15 Signal chain and have launched
scathing attacks on Goldberg. The Atlantic on Wednesday published the
full content of the text exchange.
Hegseth, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and other
administration officials on Wednesday uniformly insisted that no “war
plans” had been texted on Signal, a claim that current and former U.S.
officials have called “semantics.”
War plans carry a specific meaning. They often refer to the numbered and
highly classified planning documents — sometimes thousands of pages long
— that would inform U.S. decisions in case of a major conflict, such as
if the United States is called to defend Taiwan.
But the information Hegseth did post — specific attack details selecting
human and weapons storage targets — was a subset of those plans and was
likely informed by the same classified intelligence.
Hegseth in an X posting said the message chain included, “No names. No
targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And
no classified information.” He did not directly address Democrats'
concerns about the timing and weaponry details in the chain.
“This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or
an ‘attack plan’ (as he now calls it). Not even close,” Hegseth, who is
traveling to the Indo-Pacific this week, added.
Hegseth told reporters Hawaii he had not texted “war plans” or “attack
plans” in the Signal group, pointing out he had called his post a “team
update.”
“My job, as it said atop of that (post), everybody's seen it now - ‘TEAM
UPDATE’ - is to provide updates in real time, general updates in real
time, keep people informed,” he said before boarding a plane for Guam
without taking follow-up questions. “That's what I did. That's my job.”
[to top of second column]
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth prepares to give a television
interview outside the White House, Friday, March 21, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Waltz, who has acknowledged he built the Signal chain and has taken
“full responsibility” for the episode, amplified Hegseth's
contention.
“No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS,” Waltz posted on
X. “Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were
imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our
interests.”
Several Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday
called for Hegseth to step down.
“This is classified information. It’s a weapon system, as well as a
sequence of strikes, as well as details of the operations,” said
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois who is on the
committee. “He needs to resign immediately.”
Trump bristled at the suggestion that Hegseth should step down.
“He’s doing a great job," Trump said. "He had nothing to do with
it.”
Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence
Committee, in an exchange with Director of National Intelligence
Tulsi Gabbard during the panel's hearing on global threats on
Wednesday noted that her office's criteria on classified information
make clear that it includes “information providing indication or
advanced warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing an
attack.”
But Gabbard said the decision on whether the Signal chain should be
classified lay with Hegseth. Asked by Himes if she believed the
Pentagon's classification guidance was materially different from her
office's, she demurred.
“I haven’t reviewed the DOD guidance, so I can’t comment,” Gabbard
said referring to the Department of Defense.
The Trump administration stance on the Signal chain is also a
notable departure for a U.S. government that routinely classifies a
vast amount of far more mundane material, including millions of
documents pertaining to military and intelligence operations and
activities.
Advocates for open government have long complained that the push for
secrecy goes too far, by protecting information that could shine a
light on government activities or that would seem of little value to
our adversaries, including material about UFO sightings and
60-year-old presidential assassinations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that having a journalist
in a Signal group chat with the most senior Trump officials was a
“big mistake." But he said he has been assured that the information
shared did not threaten the operation or the lives of the service
members.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt, during her White House press
briefing, described the messaging thread “as a policy discussion,
surely a sensitive policy discussion, amongst high-level Cabinet
officials and senior staff.” She dismissed the outrage as a
“coordinated campaign” by Democrats to “sow chaos.”
Peppered with questions about how the administration can conclude
classified information wasn’t shared considering launch times and
weapon systems were discussed in the chain, Leavitt said it was up
to the public to decide whose opinion they trusted.
“Do you trust the secretary of defense — who was nominated for this
role, voted by the United States Senate into this role, who has
served in combat, honorably served our nation in uniform — or do you
trust Jeffrey Goldberg?” she asked.
Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a
lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment
grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for
editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not
following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the
Gulf of America.
___
AP Diplomatic Correspondent Matthew Lee contributed to this report
from Kingston, Jamaica.
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