A routine message on Signal changed everything for Jeffrey Goldberg, an Israel-American journalist, when a connection request from Michael Waltz, national security adviser to President Donald Trump, on March 11 led him into an unexpected journey into military secrets and high-stakes strategy.
Given the “contentious” relationship between the Trump administration and journalists, Goldberg briefly wondered whether someone was impersonating Waltz in an attempt to entrap him.
However, he decided to accept the request, hoping it was the real Waltz and that the conversation would focus on issues like Ukraine or Iran, matters of pressing international importance, as mentioned in his account for The Atlantic magazine, where he serves as editor-in-chief.
Two days later, the journalist received a notification that he was to be added to a Signal group chat titled “Houthi PC small group.” He wrote in the magazine that the name alone suggested the conversation would focus on sensitive matters related to the Houthi movement in Yemen.
He mentioned that at 4:28 pm (local time), the first message appeared. It was from “Michael Waltz,” and the content revealed the serious nature of the discussion. The message read, “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.”
Goldberg, who had spent years reporting on national security matters, was shocked by the message. In his account, he explained that the term “principals committee” typically refers to the highest-ranking officials within the national security apparatus, such as the secretaries of defence, state, and treasury, along with the CIA director.
He mentioned that at 4:28 pm (local time), the first message appeared. It was from “Michael Waltz,” and the content revealed the serious nature of the discussion. The message read, “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.”
Goldberg, who had spent years reporting on national security matters, was shocked by the message. In his account, he explained that the term “principals committee” typically refers to the highest-ranking officials within the national security apparatus, such as the secretaries of defence, state, and treasury, along with the CIA director.
Journalists were rarely, if ever, invited to be part of such discussions. Yet, Goldberg found himself included in what appeared to be a highly secretive conversation, something he had never experienced in his career.
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
Goldberg had never been invited to a White House principals-committee meeting before, nor had he ever heard of one being coordinated through a commercial messaging app, he wrote.