Senior officials in the administration of United States President Donald Trump discussed planned US strikes on Yemen on the messaging app Signal, and complained "that they have to save Europe again."
The British public service BBC reports that among the messages transmitted by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine who was added to the Signal chat group, is one in which US officials discuss the possibility of Europe paying for US protection of key sea lanes.
“Whether it is now or in a few weeks, the United States will need to reopen these shipping lanes,” a March 14 memo linked to White House National Security Advisor Michael Volk wrote.
It further states that at Trump's request, his team is working with the Department of Defense and the State Department "to determine the total costs so they can bill the Europeans."
At one point during the message exchange, the account belonging to US Vice President J.D. Vance again expresses dissatisfaction: "I hate that we have to bail out Europe again," alluding to the fact that Europe would benefit the most from American strikes, due to its dependence on these shipping routes.
Three minutes later, a user identified as US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth replies to Vance: "VP: I completely share your disgust with European parasitism. It's disgraceful."
Reuters writes that The Atlantic also stated that Vance expressed concern about the timing of the attack and said there was a strong argument for delaying it by a month.
"I'm not sure the President (Donald Trump) realizes how inconsistent this is with his current message on Europe. There is also a risk of a moderate to severe spike in oil prices," the message said, although he ultimately expressed a willingness to support the group's consensus.
A clear theme that emerged from the group chat was – a lack of sympathy for Europe.
This stance is not new for Vance, the BBC reports. In February, he delivered a scathing critique of European democracies during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
Vance then accused European governments of retreating from their values, stifling freedom of speech and causing mass migration.
The speech, which lasted 20 minutes, was met with fierce criticism from Europe, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius calling it "unacceptable."
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The head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Kaia Kallas, assessed that Vance was "trying to provoke a conflict" with Europe.
A few days later, Vance led the attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when they met together with President Trump.
So far, Europe has not yet reacted to this new wave of what appears to be open criticism from the United States.
Committed a crime?
Under US law, it can be a crime if confidential information is mishandled, misused or intentionally disclosed, although it is not clear whether any legal provisions were violated in this case.
The messages, which, according to The Atlantic, Volc set to automatically delete themselves from the Signal app after a certain period of time, further raise questions about a possible violation of federal records retention laws.
As part of the Trump administration's efforts to track down the sources of leaks to the media, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard wrote on the social media platform X on March 14 that "unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such."
Gabbard will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday about global threats to the United States.
The Signal app, developed by entrepreneur Moxie Marlspike, has long been used by "privacy activists" but has also become an unofficial platform for officials in Washington to communicate. Signal does not use US government encryption and is not hosted on government servers.
Democratic lawmakers called the use of the Signal app for such purposes illegal and called for an immediate investigation.
"This is one of the most stunning failures in military intelligence security that I've read about in a very, very long time," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, adding that he would ask Majority Leader John Thune to conduct an investigation.
"We're just now learning about it. But obviously, we need to get to the bottom of this and figure out exactly what happened. We'll have a plan," said Thune, a Republican from South Dakota.
The White House did not immediately announce that there would be any staff changes due to this oversight.
"President Trump continues to have full confidence in his national security team, including National Security Adviser Mike Voltz," White House spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt told Reuters.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on social media that using Signal to discuss sensitive national security issues is "clearly illegal and dangerous beyond measure."
"Every single official in that group has now, even if unintentionally, committed a crime - which normally carries a prison sentence," Democratic Senator Chris Coons said on X.
War plans discovered by mistake
Senior Trump administration officials mistakenly disclosed war plans in a group chat shortly before the US attacked the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, the White House said last night, following a report by The Atlantic magazine.
Democratic lawmakers quickly condemned this oversight, stating that it was a violation of national security and a violation of the law, which must be the subject of a congressional investigation.
The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said that on March 13, he was unexpectedly invited to an encrypted group on the Signal app, called the "Houthi PC small group."
In the group, National Security Advisor Mike Walz tasked his deputy Alex Wong with forming a "tiger team" to coordinate US actions against the Houthis.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said the group chat appeared to be authentic.
On March 15, US President Donald Trump launched a campaign of major military strikes against the Houthis for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, and warned Iran, the Houthis' main ally, to immediately end its support for the group.
Hours before the attack began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details of the plan in a group chat, including information about targets, the weapons the U.S. would use and the order of the attacks, Goldberg said.
The report did not provide specific details, but Goldberg described it as a "shockingly reckless" use of the Signal app.
Goldberg said the group also included accounts that appeared to belong to Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and senior National Security Council officials.
Joe Kent, Trump's nominee to direct the National Counterterrorism Center, was reportedly in the group although he has not yet received Senate confirmation.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he was unaware of the incident. "I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic," Trump said. A White House official later said an investigation had been launched and that Trump had been briefed on the matter.
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Hegset denied sharing war plans in the chat group.
"Nobody sent war plans by text message, and that's all I have to say about that," he told reporters during an official visit to Hawaii on Monday.
Goldberg responded to the denial on CNN later that evening: "No, that's a lie. He was sending war plans."
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