Top Trump administration officials accidentally invited a journalist into a group chat about the strikes on Houthis

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has addressed a recent leak of high-level discussions about US airstrikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels, calling the journalist involved "deceitful" and downplaying the significance of the disclosure.

The incident came to light after The Atlantic reported on Monday that its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been accidentally added to a Signal group chat that included top Trump administration officials such as Vice President J.D. Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary Hegseth. The group had been actively discussing potential US military operations against the Houthis for days prior to President Donald Trump ordering strikes on Yemen on March 15.

Goldberg claimed that one of Hegseth's final messages before the attack "contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing."

When asked about the leak on Monday, Hegseth dismissed Goldberg as "a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes."

"Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that," Hegseth said when pressed on the content of the messages.

National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters that the message thread "appears to be authentic" and confirmed that an internal review had been launched into "how an inadvertent number was added to the chain."

"The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials," Hughes added, without clarifying whether national security protocols had been breached or if any disciplinary action would follow.

Trump ordered a "powerful military action" against the Yemen-based Houthi militants last Saturday, accusing them of conducting an "unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones." The group, officially known as the Ansar Allah movement, has controlled large portions of Yemen - including the capital, Sanaa - since the mid-2010s.

In what The Atlantic described as a "fascinating policy discussion," senior US officials reportedly acknowledged the difficulty of building public support for a new military campaign.

"There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary," said the account labeled JD Vance, arguing that "the strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message." In response, Hegseth agreed, stating: "I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what - nobody knows who the Houthis are - which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded."

Trump has claimed the Houthi attacks "emanate from, and are created by, Iran," warning that from now on, Washington would view every shot fired by the Yemeni group as if it were fired by Tehran. "Iran will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire," the president wrote on his Truth Social platform last Monday.