Mixed Signal: Hegseth, Trump officials perform ‘rhetorical gymnastics’ over ‘war plans’ versus ‘attack plans’

Published March 26, 2025 12:39pm ET



Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth maintains that he did not share “war plans” in the now-infamous Signal group chat that inadvertently included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

The outlet published a second article Wednesday morning that went into greater detail about the messages Hegseth shared with senior Trump officials in the chat about attacking Houthi targets. Goldberg said his outlet made the decision to publish the details so people could “reach their own conclusions” after multiple members of the administration insisted there was no classified information shared. The updates Hegseth gave in the Signal chat to other senior officials appear to be a real-time play-by-play. He specifically relayed details about dates and times, concepts of operations, and weapons systems included in it.

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