Overview

Signalgate, also written Signal Gate, and Pete Hegseth's Houthi PC Small Group refers to a reported security blunder by U.S. President Donald Trump's second administration at the hands of his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz (Mike Waltz) who accidentally added the Atlantic's Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg into a group chat called "Houthi PC small group" on the encrypted messaging app Signal in late March 2025. Hegseth texted info about classified bombings in Yemen against Houthi rebels, which came to fruition a few hours later. Goldberg left the group chat and published the story soon after, titling the article, "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans." The story quickly went viral on Twitter / X and other social media sites. Memes at Hegseth's expense surfaced en masse, typically using the situation as an example of his incompetence. Many of the memes used the emoji combination "👊 🇺🇸 🔥" because the Michael Waltz account had sent it in the group chat. Hegseth and the White House later denied the claims that confidential war plans were leaked in the chat. Also, Jeffery Goldberg received pressure from other journalists to publish the contents of the entire group chat. Goldberg eventually published the screenshots in an article titled, "Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal," which also went viral on Twitter. The screenshots confirmed the war plans sent by the account seemingly belonging to Hegseth. WIRED later reported that Michael Waltz had left sensitive information, like his contact list, publically available on Venmo, causing more uproar and backlash.

Background

On March 24th, 2025, the Atlantic^[1] Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg published an article called "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans," which detailed a Signal group chat that he was added to seemingly by members of President Donald Trump's administration, most notably Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The group was called "Houthi PC small group" and Goldberg was added to it by a "Michael Waltz" on March 11th.

Multiple high-ranking officials from Trump's White House were apparently in the chat, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence.

On March 15th, the account seemingly belonging to Pete Hegseth sent a lengthy text that detailed bombings in Yemen set to take place in two hours. The bombings occurred as planned, leading Goldberg to believe that the Signal group chat was real and not a hoax. Goldberg embedded a screenshot from the group showing the members celebrating the attack, including a message from Michael Waltz that read, "👊 🇺🇸 🔥." Goldberg left the chat shortly after.

Online Reactions

On March 24th, 2025, X^[2] user @JonLemire tweeted a link to the Atlantic article, receiving over 25.2 million views and 89,000 likes in a day.

The tweet inspired viral reactions in the following hours. For instance, on March 24th, X^[3] user @Osinttechnical quote tweeted the post, claiming, "This is possibly the most insane national security story in the last 50 years," gaining over 20.1 million views and 169,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Memes about the story also started to surface that day, like a tweet shared by X^[4] user @PeterTwinklage on March 24th, 2025, who used the Couple Texting in Bed format to show Jeffery Goldberg and Pete Hegseth messaging in the chat, amassing over 23,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on March 24th, X^[5] @jameslineky tweeted a screenshot of the emoji text (👊 🇺🇸 🔥) allegedly sent by Michael Waltz, captioning it, "If I send you this it means a reporter is in the group chat," receiving over 53,000 likes in a day (shown below).

On March 25th, 2025, Redditor^[6] Spatenmax shared a meme to the subreddit /r/dankmemes, referencing President Nixon's Watergate scandal and Omni-Man's "Pathetic" quote, gaining over 1,600 upvotes in a few hours (shown below).

Others reacted to Goldberg leaving the group chat shortly after the war plans were seemingly leaked. For instance, on March 24th, X^[7] user @GrimKim questioned Goldberg's decision, writing, "Imagine being given a secret front row seat to the inner workings of an authoritarian regime led by the worst people alive and then hurriedly removing yourself because it’s not 'appropriate,'" receiving over 86,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Reactions

Developments

Pete Hegseth's Response

On March 24th, 2025, X^[8] user @Acyn shared a clip from Fox News of reporters questioning Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the Atlantic's article and Jeffery Goldberg's claim. Hegseth denied the claims, initially stating, "So you are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes."

Reporter: Can you share how your information about war plans was shared with a journalist? Hegseth: So you are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes pic.twitter.com/JXegFXbdpP

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 24, 2025

Jeffrey Goldberg Publishes Full Chat

After the original article on March 24th, 2025, the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg received pressure from other journalists on social media to release all of the messages in the Houthi PC Small Group chat.

For instance, independent journalist Ken Klipperstien (known for leaking the J.D. Vance Dossier) tweeted^[9] at Goldberg on March 24th, writing, "If it was safe enough to discuss in text, it's safe enough to publish. Really disgraceful how cowardly the Atlantic's refusal to publish the message here is," gaining over 12,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Others shared similar condemnations, like Twitch streamer Hasan Piker who tweeted^[10] on March 25th, "Jeffrey Goldberg refusing to dump all the text messages in the Houthi Signal chat is exactly why the NatSec advisor had his personal phone number. It is precisely the problem with fake 'journalists' at legacy publishers. They're stenographers for the state department." The post received roughly 29,000 likes in a day (shown below).

On March 26th, 2025, the Atlantic^[10] published an article titled "Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump's Advisers Shared on Signal" in which Goldberg published screenshots of the entire text chain in the Houthi PC Small Group. The screenshots also showed the contacts included in the group (shown below).





On March 26th, X^[11] user Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) started a thread that included all of the screenshots, gaining over 5 million views and 80,000 likes in four hours.

One of the screenshots showed the exact message that Pete Hegseth sent, which leaked war plans by detailing the time and place of multiple bombings on Houthi rebels in Yemen (shown below). The account seemingly belonging to VP Vance is seen replying, "I will say a prayer for victory."

Michael Waltz's Venmo

On March 26th, 2025, WIRED^[12] reported that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had left sensitive information exposed on his Venmo account, most notably his entire contact list. In June 2024, WIRED^[13] ran a similar story about VP J.D. Vance's Venmo being left open to the public. Waltz's Venmo account exposed a 328-person friend list, which included a diverse array of political figures, celebrities and journalists. The list enabled WIRED to find other high-ranking Trump officials with their Venmo friend lists left public. WIRED noted that after reaching out to Waltz for comment, his Venmo list went private.

On March 26th, X^[14] user @krassenstein posted a screen recording of Waltz's Venmo friend list before it went private, receiving over 3.5 million views and 41,000 likes in a day (shown below).

BREAKING LEAK:Mike Waltz--the guy who let Jeffrey Goldberg into the Signal chat--also had his Venmo contacts set to public.When the press reached out, he deleted them immediately.Here’s the list before he wiped it. These are people Waltz had saved in his phone.Yet another… pic.twitter.com/prdZY4OZRJ

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 26, 2025

Search Interest

External References

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