The Atlantic Magazine has published the full Signal exchange between top Trump administration officials discussing the plans for military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz defends the messages that became public, arguing that they did not contain sensitive information and were not “war plans”.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also downplays the leak, calling it a “hoax” promoted by a “Trump-hater”, referring to The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Democrats say the episode highlights the incompetence of Trump’s security team, with Senator Mark Kelly calling Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth the “most unqualified” Pentagon chief.
Trump is set to speak at a White House event marking Women’s History Month later today.
The US president has sought to dismiss allegations that government secrets were at risk.
The Republican leader also told reporters he had no intention of seeking punishments, barring the use of the Signal messaging app or asking for an apology from those involved.
The Atlantic published a partial account on Monday of the apparent Yemen war plans shared by Trump officials in the Signal chat.
Today’s release contained the most sensitive details that the magazine initially decided to withhold, including the weapons used in the strikes and the targets of the attacks.
According to messages sent by a user named Pentagon chief Hegseth, the US military used F-18 jets, Tomahawk missiles, and strike drones in the assault.
A message apparently sent by Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, also identified the main target of one of the attacks as the Houthis’ “top missile guy”.
A message attributed to Waltz said US officials had “positive” identification of the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed”.
