Longtime GOP consultant turned never-Trumper Sarah Longwell has some choice words for President Donald Trump and top members of his administration after officials texted war plans to a group chat in a secure app that included a journalist.
“Idiots. Dangerous idiots. But really just complete idiots,” Longwell posted to X after the news broke.
Or, as she also put it, “incompetent buffoons.”
Top national security officials, including Trump’s defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic, the magazine reported in a story posted online Monday.
The material in the text chain “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported.
It was not immediately clear if the specifics of the military operation were classified, but they often are and at the least are kept secure to protect service members and operational security. The U.S. has conducted airstrikes against the Houthis since the militant group began targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in November 2023.
Just two hours after Goldberg received the details of the attack on March 15, the U.S. began launching a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The National Security Council said in a statement that it was looking into how a journalist’s number was added to the chain in the Signal group chat.
Trump told reporters he was not aware of the apparent breach in protocol.
“I know nothing about it,” Trump said, adding that The Atlantic was “not much of a magazine.” He went on to say, “I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time.”
Longwell, meanwhile, posted clips on X of officials on the text chain criticizing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over using her private email when she was in office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
