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JD Vance and three Cabinet secretaries discussed military strikes on a third-party messaging app - March 24, 2025
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Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a group chat on Signal that included JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and others. The chat discussed military operations against Houthis in Yemen, including the timing and equipment deployed. The use of Signal represented a national security concern and led to questions of whether Trump officials were properly preserving records.
When questioned by a reporter, Hegseth replied, "You're talking about a decietful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes [...] Nobody was texting war plans."
The Trump administration claimed this information was not classified. Trump did not admonish anyone in his administration, despite prevoiusly criticizing Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server, and instead attacked Goldberg as a "sleazebag".