The Trump administration’s plans to begin attacking Yemen’s Houthis were shared with an American reporter who revealed Monday that he was accidentally included in a group chat involving the most senior US officials on President Donald Trump’s national security team.

Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published an article with screenshots of the conversations, which spanned several weeks.

Goldberg explained that he was added to a Signal chat group on March 13 by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The group, named “Houthi PC small group,” was focused on coordinating action regarding the Houthis.

The first message on the group from Waltz, according to Goldberg, said: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. 

My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”

In all, 18 officials were in the group chat, the reporter said, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

One of the key topics discussed in the messages was the impending military campaign, with Hegseth urging the group to move forward without delay. He emphasized that the goals were to restore freedom of navigation and reestablish deterrence, “which Biden cratered.”

On March 15, the day the US strikes began, Goldberg said that Hegseth shared operational details of the attacks, including information about targets, weapons, and the sequence of the strikes.

The US military has been conducting daily air and naval strikes since. The Pentagon declared that the campaign will be “relentless” until the Houthis pledge to stop attacks in the Red Sea.

The White House confirmed the authenticity of the message thread and announced that an investigation would be conducted to determine how Goldberg was added to the group. National Security Council Spokesman Brian Hughes stated, “The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security.”

Goldberg said he left the group shortly after the initial strikes on March 15.