Jeffrey Goldberg has entered the chat.
The Atlantic editor had the scoop of the second Trump administration (so far) when he revealed Monday afternoon that he had been included in a Signal message group where Trump’s senior national security officials discussed plans to bomb Yemen’s Houthi militia. Since October 7, 2023, the Iran-backed militia has used missiles and drones to shut down Red Sea shipping lanes and engaged the U.S. Navy in its longest surface warfare operation since World War II.
The group chat had it all: emojis, operational plans, major national security concerns, and a breathtaking glimpse of the foreign policy divides within Trump’s inner circle.
The clearest line was drawn between the account identified with Vice President J.D. Vance, who was skeptical of bringing the fight to the Houthis, and the account associated with National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. “I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself,” the Vance account wrote to the message group. “But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
The Waltz account replied: “Whether it’s now or several weeks from now, it will have to be the United States that reopens these shipping lanes.” Vance deferred. And one day later, the bombing commenced.