The accidental leak of sensitive military information to The Atlantic magazine by senior members of United States President Donald Trump’s administration has provoked a flurry of reactions across Washington, DC.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, wrote in an article published on Monday that he was inadvertently added to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal in which senior officials, including US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, discussed upcoming air strikes on Yemen.
Goldberg said the discussions had provided him with knowledge of air strikes against Houthi rebels earlier this month hours before they were carried out.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes confirmed the authenticity of the group chat, which also included US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, and said officials were reviewing how Goldberg’s number had been added.
Below are some of the reactions to the security breach from top Republicans and Democrats.
Trump
The US president initially told reporters that he did not know anything about the leak and expressed his disdain for The Atlantic.
“I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that is going out of business,” Trump told reporters. “I know nothing about it. You’re saying that they had what?”
In a statement released later on Monday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump continued to have the “utmost confidence” in his national security team.
Hegseth
The top US defence official disputed The Atlantic’s characterisation of the incident, despite the White House confirming the authenticity of the group chat, blasting Goldberg as a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes”.
“I’ve heard how it was characterised. Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth told reporters.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson
Johnson, the top-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, played down the incident and said he expected the Trump administration to take steps to “make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
“I think it would be a terrible mistake for there to be adverse consequences on any of the people that were involved in that call,” Johnson told reporters.
“They were trying to do a good job, the mission was accomplished with precision.”
US Senate Majority leader John Thune
The South Dakota Republican said he had only become aware of the situation but that he would work with his colleagues to “figure out what went on there”.
“We’ll have a plan,” Thune told reporters.
US House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries
Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House, said the leak was “completely outrageous and shocks the conscience”.
“It is yet another unprecedented example that our nation is increasingly more dangerous because of the elevation of reckless and mediocre individuals, including the Secretary of Defense,” Jeffries, who represents New York’s 8th congressional district, said in a statement.
“If House Republicans are truly serious about keeping America safe, and not simply being sycophants and enablers, they must join Democrats in a swift, serious and substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach.”
US Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer
Schumer, the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, described the incident as one of the “most stunning breaches of military intelligence” he had ever heard of.
“What we have here are senior US leaders, including the vice president and secretary of defence, having classified discussions of military action over an unsecure app,” Schumer said in a speech to the Senate.
“It’s bad enough that a private citizen was added to this chain, but it’s far worse that sensitive military information was exchanged on an unauthorised application, especially when that sensitive military information was so so important.”
Republican Senator Roger Wicker
The Mississippi senator, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he anticipated that he and his Democratic colleagues would hold classified briefings about the leak to get to the bottom of what happened.
“It’s definitely a concern and it appears that mistakes were made, no question,” Wicker said.
Democratic Senator Jack Reed
Reed, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said the leak, if true, represented one of the most “egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen”.
“Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line,” the Rhode Island senator said in a statement.
“The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is stunning and dangerous. I will be seeking answers from the Administration immediately.”
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Clinton, whose 2016 presidential campaign was dogged by questions over her handling of sensitive information, expressed disbelief over the debacle on social media.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton said on X in a post accompanied by an emoji of two big eyes.
