The Atlantic Has Entered the Chat
Inside the Signal thread where top Trump officials planned a war—and accidentally looped in a journalist.
Imagine you’re a journalist, and you suddenly find yourself in a group chat planning a U.S. military strike. Not because you uncovered it, not because of a whistleblower, but because someone accidentally added you to the damn Signal group.
This isn’t the plot of a political satire. This happened.
On March 15, 2025, while America was prepping bombs over Yemen, the editor of The Atlantic was watching it unfold in real-time on an encrypted app. Like it was a fantasy football chat—except with missiles.
Let’s break this story down, because it’s not just absurd. It’s a warning siren for the future of governance, war, and whatever you want to call the administrative chaos that now surrounds American power.
The Group Chat Heard ’Round the World
The U.S. bombed Houthi targets in Yemen at 1:45 p.m. Eastern. But two hours earlier, a journalist had already seen the classified war plan—because someone named “Michael Waltz” (possibly Trump’s national security adviser) added him to a Signal thread meant for Trump’s top Cabinet members.
The chat, dubbed “Houthi PC small group,” included names like Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, JD Vance, and Stephen Miller.
They casually discussed everything from attack timing to post-strike European “remuneration,” like they were deciding where to brunch.
No SCIF. No classified servers. Just Signal. Like teens planning prom.
Here’s the Signal text thread:
Thursday, March 13, 2025
4:28 PM – Michael Waltz (National Security Adviser)
“Team – establishing a principals group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours… My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team…”
4:28 PM – Marco Rubio (Secretary of State)
“Mike Needham for State.”
4:28 PM – JD Vance (Vice President)
“Andy Baker for VP.”
4:29 PM – Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence)
“Joe Kent for DNI.”
4:37 PM – Scott Bessent (Treasury Secretary)
“Dan Katz for Treasury.”
4:53 PM – Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense)
“Dan Caldwell for DoD.”
5:24 PM – John Ratcliffe (CIA Director)
[Name of CIA official provided, redacted in story.]
6:34 PM – Brian McCormack (NSC Official)
“Brian McCormack for NSC.”
Friday, March 14, 2025
8:05 AM – Michael Waltz
“Team, you should have a statement of conclusions… in your high side inboxes. State and DOD: suggested notification lists for regional Allies…”
8:16 AM – JD Vance
“I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake… There’s a real risk the public doesn’t understand this… I’m willing to support the consensus, but there’s an argument for waiting.”
8:22 AM – Joe Kent
“There is nothing time sensitive driving the time line. We’ll have the exact same options in a month.”
8:26 AM – John Ratcliffe
[Shared sensitive operational intelligence.]
8:27 AM – Pete Hegseth
“VP: I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS… I believe we should go. This is not about the Houthis. It’s about restoring freedom of navigation and reestablishing deterrence.”
8:30 AM – Michael Waltz
[Message about trade figures, European naval weakness, and billing Europe for U.S. efforts.]
8:45 AM – JD Vance
“@Pete Hegseth: if you think we should do it, let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
8:48 AM – Pete Hegseth
“VP: I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It’s PATHETIC. But Mike is right, we’re the only ones who can do this. I think we should go.”
8:55 AM – Stephen Miller (Deputy White House Chief of Staff)
“President was clear: green light. But we must make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return… What if Europe doesn’t pay?”
9:46 AM – Pete Hegseth
“Agree.”
Saturday, March 15, 2025
11:44 AM – Pete Hegseth
[“TEAM UPDATE” with operational details of upcoming strike on Yemen.]
11:45 AM – JD Vance
“I will say a prayer for victory.”
Post-Strike Messages (After 1:45 PM ET)
1:48 PM – Michael Waltz
[Update calling the operation an “amazing job.”]
1:50 PM – John Ratcliffe
“A good start.”
1:52 PM – Michael Waltz
👊🇺🇸🔥
1:53 PM – Marco Rubio
“Good Job Pete and your team!!”
1:54 PM – Susie Wiles (White House Chief of Staff)
“Kudos to all – most particularly those in theater and CENTCOM! Really great. Godbless.”
1:55 PM – Steve Witkoff (Trump’s Middle East/Ukraine Negotiator)
🤲💪🇺🇸
1:56 PM – Tulsi Gabbard
“Great work and effects!”
From Shadow Government to Shadow IT
This wasn’t just some military leak—it was the Secretary of Defense texting the war plan to a journalist.
These are supposedly the grown-ups in the room. They have SCIFs in their homes. They have government channels for classified communication. And yet here they are, sending disappearing messages about kinetic strikes, like cartel dealers using burner phones.
Remember when Trump wanted Hillary locked up for using a private email server? This is that—on meth.
Governance as Vibes, Not Process
The deeper concern isn’t just security—it’s how decisions are made. The chat reveals Trump-world’s foreign policy mindset:
• “Nobody knows who the Houthis are.”
• “Biden failed.”
• “Europe needs to pay up.”
They’re not coordinating with NATO or the UN. They’re not doing public messaging. They’re not debating legal authorizations. They’re treating war like a brand opportunity—and treating allies like freeloaders at a barbecue.
This is government by group chat, not deliberation. It’s less “West Wing,” more “WhatsApp Coup.”
The Irony Is Terminal
Let’s recap the contradictions:
• Trump-world decried Hillary for emails. They’re Signal-bombing the Middle East.
• Trump was indicted for classified docs. Now his team might be leaking classified ops in real time.
• They bash tech platforms as security risks, but they’re literally coordinating war via an open-source app favored by anarchists.
It’s almost poetic. Like if Nixon broke into the Watergate Hotel to install Slack.
If War Is Just a Text Thread, What’s a Republic?
This story isn’t just a scandal. It’s a symptom. America’s national security apparatus has entered its post-institutional phase. Decisions aren’t made by formal authority—they’re made by whoever has the phone, the access, the vibe.
If a journalist can sit silently in on a war council without anyone noticing, it’s not just bad OPSEC—it’s post-democracy. We’re not watching governance. We’re watching roleplay. A LARP, but with drones.
And if that doesn’t terrify you more than the Houthis ever could, you haven’t been paying attention.
This wasn’t a leak. It was a live tap into the madness. The kind you usually read about in memoirs, decades after the fact. Only this time, it was written in real time, with emoji, on Signal.
The bombs may have landed in Yemen. But the real explosion just went off in the idea that there’s still such a thing as a secure state.
And the aftershock? That’s us, realizing we live in a country where a war might be declared by group text—accidentally CC’d to The Atlantic.
That’s the point.
too much of an ego to resign.
Hegseth belongs on Fox News. Just resign and go back to drinking.