‘The first bombs will definitely drop’: Full text of US military group chat scandal revealed

Washington: The magazine editor added to a Signal group with the Trump administration’s top national security leaders has published the full text of military attack plans shared in the chat after participants declared no classified information was included.

The text messages – sent by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to the group that contained Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and, by error, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg – contained details of imminent strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

They show that 11.44am on March 15, Hegseth texted the group that American F-18s would launch at 12.15pm, ahead of a “strike window” beginning at 1.45pm. “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s),” Hegseth wrote in one message.

He went on to detail plans for a second series of drone strikes beginning at 2.15pm. “THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets,” he wrote. He also mentioned plans to launch sea-based Tomahawk missiles.

Goldberg’s inclusion in the highly sensitive group chat – which US President Donald Trump dismissed as a harmless “glitch” – has scandalised Washington and the US national security establishment.

His original account, published on Monday, deliberately omitted the operational details that Hegseth posted to the group, assuming it was classified information that could undermine US security and endanger lives if released.

But once the story was published and the scandal quickly spread, the White House and members of the group chat denied any classified material had been shared in the chat. “It wasn’t classified information,” Trump said, while Hegseth stated: “Nobody was texting war plans.”

At a hearing of the Senate intelligence committee, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe also denied classified information was shared.

Given this testimony, Goldberg and The Atlantic said they decided the public should have the right to see the material and make up their own minds.

“There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in non-secure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,” Goldberg and his colleague Shane Harris wrote in the follow-up story.

The magazine also asked national security agencies whether they objected to the details being published. In a response included in the article, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated that the information was not classified, but said the administration discouraged and objected to its release.

Once the magazine published the details, the White House played down their significance and launched a full-blown attack on Goldberg and the magazine. Vance said Goldberg clearly “oversold what he had”, and Trump’s deputy chief-of-staff Taylor Budowich called the story “bullshit” and the people involved “scumbags”.

Hegseth disputed the magazine’s initial characterisation of the text messages as “war plans”. He said the texts did not mention targets, locations, units, routes, sources or methods, nor any classified information.

“Those are some really shitty war plans. 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 said. “We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes.”

Leavitt, meanwhile, accused Goldberg of being an “anti-Trump sensationalist reporter”, a liar and a registered Democrat whose wife had donated to the party. She also labelled the story a “hoax” and said the real story was the success of the Yemen mission.

In a statement, The Atlantic said attempts to discredit and disparage its reporting and personnel “follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans”.

The magazine’s publication of the full Hegseth messages has focused Democrats’ attacks on the controversial defence secretary, a former Fox News personality who was only confirmed in the role after Vance was forced to use his tie-breaking vote.

At a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing, many Democratic members demanded Hegseth resign, including Colorado congressman Jason Crow, a former army ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth preparing to give a TV interview outside the White House last week.Credit: AP

“I learned in that time in service that responsibility is core to leadership. You accept responsibility when things go wrong. You admit mistakes. You set the standard from the very top,” Crow said.

“It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity. It is outrageous, and it is a leadership failure, and that is why Secretary Hegseth … must resign immediately.”

Gabbard, having equivocated in several responses at the previous day’s hearing, conceded on Thursday (AEDT) that she was in the group chat. “I was travelling at the time and I was not playing a very specific role,” she said.

She acknowledged it was a mistake that a journalist was inadvertently added to the group and said Waltz had “taken full responsibility”. An in-depth review with technical experts into how it happened was under way.

Democrats held up enlarged copies of Pete Hegseth’s messages to the Signal group at a committee hearing.Credit: AP

While Waltz admitted he was the one who added Goldberg to the group, he implied that Goldberg – who he called a “loser” – may have somehow disguised his phone number under another name on Waltz’s phone.

Waltz claimed not to have ever met or spoken to Goldberg – but photos quickly emerged of the men standing beside each other at a 2021 event where Goldberg was the emcee.

Asked on Fox News how Goldberg’s phone number could have ended up on his phone if they didn’t know each other, Waltz said: “If you have somebody else’s contact, then somehow it gets sucked in. It gets sucked in.”

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.