WASHINGTON — President Trump’s cabinet officials revealed “pretty detailed” classified information on a chat group with a journalist about impending US airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen, in a “really scary” breach of protocol, a national security expert told The Post Wednesday.
The full exchange from the encrypted Signal chat — which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Michael Waltz — was released by Atlantic magazine editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to the private group.
“TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch,” Hegseth told participants.
“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),” Hegseth continued, before adding: “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).”
The highly sensitive operational details covered the “method of targeting,” the timeline for the operation and who pulled the trigger on the Houthi targets, according to Dan Meyer, a national security partner at New York law firm Tully Rinckey.
“The pilots were using their sensors, using their triggers to confirm identification and they let the drones deliver the weapons,” said Meyer, a 25-year veteran of national security law and former official at the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General.
Hegseth also wrote in the Signal thread that at 2:10 p.m., “more F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package).”
“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets),” the Pentagon leader said. “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”
Meyer explained that the other texts were “pretty detailed.”
“That’s when bombs would actually drop,” he said, referring to Hegseth’s “1415” missive. “So what that tells me is the pilots weren’t launching weapons.”
“Somebody flying the drone, you know, could be [operating out of] a strip mall down in New Jersey,” he added.
“Really scary that that went out over Signal because that reveals a method of targeting that you can read online in some places,” Meyer concluded, “but you really don’t want to know in specific instances when ‘trigger-based’ targeting is being done.”
The national security expert also noted that Hegseth believed “all the details of the actual security of the operation” were “good” — “We are currently clean on OPSEC,” the defense secretary wrote, despite Goldberg eavesdropping on the entire exchange.
“There’s a checklist you go through to make sure that the operational security of the mission is not going to compromise the actual ability to deliver the weapons,” Meyer explained.
Former Biden State Department spokesman Ned Price posted on X Wednesday of the Hegseth texts: “In the DNI’s own guidance, this type of information should be classified TOP SECRET.”
Additionally, Waltz shared further classified information.
“VP. building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job,” the national security adviser said after the strike, later adding: “The first target — their top missile guy — we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
Meyer said Waltz was communicating what’s called a BDA, or battle damage assessment.
“When you get to somebody having gone in the building, bomb gone off, building collapsed, that’s BDA,” he said. “So that is classified because it’s about what we know about the success of our mission.”
“So you’re in a whole different world now,” he explained. “You’re not protecting that information because it could damage our operations. You’re protecting that information because we don’t want for an enemy to know we know we succeeded, right?”
“You don’t want to give out your BDA — and that was giving out the BDA,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time, were among the 18 officials included in the Signal messaging channel.
Hegseth, White House spokespeople and other Trump officials have dismissed the “mistake,” claiming that it did not involve “war plans.”
“I take full responsibility,” Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night. “I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
Goldberg fired back on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday: “March 11th, he reached out. March 13th, I’m added to the ‘Houthi PC small group’ [channel]. March 15th, they announced to the small group before the attack occurs that the attack is occurring and what weapons they’re using.”
“And then I began the process of writing up what I thought was a story about a massive security breach at the highest levels of the United States government,” the Atlantic scribe said. “That’s the story.”
