Group chat gives near-real-time insight into Trump's inner circlepublished at 20:20 Greenwich Mean Time 24 March

20:20 GMT 24 March

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent

Image source, EPA

JD Vance was the highest-ranking Trump administration participant in the Signal text group that discussed detailed plans about the recent US military strike on Yemen.

While the vice-president has typically marched in lockstep with President Donald Trump in his public comments on foreign policy, in the private discussions he said that he thought the administration was making a “mistake” by taking military action.

He noted that the targeted Houthi forces posed a larger threat to European shipping, while the danger to American trade was minimal.“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” Vance wrote, according to Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

“There’s a further risk that we see moderate to sever spike in oil prices.” The vice-president went on to say that he would support what the team decided and “keep these concerns to myself”.

“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."

This is far from the first time a vice-president has disagreed with their president on matters of foreign policy. George W Bush clashed with Dick Cheney in the later years of his presidency over handling of the Iraq War, and Joe Biden believed that Barack Obama’s covert operation to kill Osama bin Laden was too risky.

This group chat, however, has provided some near-real-time insight into the inner dynamics of Trump’s top national security advisors.

In Jeffrey Goldberg's article for The Atlantic, he says an account labelled "Pete Hegseth" posted an update in the Signal group chat.

Goldberg says the message included "operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing".

The message to the group said the first wave of the attack would happen in the next two hours.

Goldberg says later that day he was sitting in his car in a supermarket parking lot, still unsure if the group chat was real or fake. He looked on social media and saw reports of explosions in Yemen.

Then, Goldberg says, he looked on Signal and saw a user called "Michael Waltz" post a message saying the operation was an "amazing job".

US President Donald Trump was just asked about this story from The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, who was added to a group chat that seemingly discussed US war plans.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said, telling the reporter: “You’re telling me about it for the first time.”

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

On 15 March, the US launched what it described as a "decisive and powerful" series of air strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Four days earlier, on 11 March, Jeffrey Goldberg writes that he received a connection request on the encrypted messaging app Signal from an account that purported to be White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz's.

Signal is used by journalists and Washington officials because of the secure nature of its communications, the ability to create aliases, and send disappearing messages.

Two days later, Goldberg said he was added to a Signal chat entitled "Houthi PC small group".

A number of accounts that appeared to belong to cabinet members and national security officials were included in the chat, Goldberg reported.

Accounts labelled "JD Vance," the name of the vice-president; "Pete Hegseth," the Defence Secretary; and "John Ratcliffe," the director of the Central Intelligence Agency; were among names in the chat. Top national security officials from various agencies also appeared to be added.

Goldberg says he watched as the group chat discussed targets and timings for military strikes. And those plans appeared accurate when US later launched air strikes on Houthis in Yemen that matched details from the group chat.

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

The White House has confirmed that a journalist seems to have been inadvertently added to a group chat in which US national security officials discussed plans for a strike against the Houthi rebel group.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, reported, external on Monday that he was added to a Signal message group which included accounts labelled as White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Vice-President JD Vance.

"At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic," Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement to the BBC. "We are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.

"The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy co-ordination between senior officials," he said.

Stick with us as we unpack this story with reactions from US lawmakers.