White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2025. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf 11:26 AM – Wednesday, March 26, 2025
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Trump administration’s “Signal chat leak,” shared by journalist Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic, contained no “war plans” as he suggested — ultimately calling his war plans claim a “hoax.”
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“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans.’ This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin,” Leavitt wrote in an X post.
Editors later modified the story’s headline a day after Leavitt accused Goldberg of giving his report a “sensationalist spin.”
“These Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisors Shared on Signal,” it now says.
In response, the journalist and editor-in-chief of The Atlantic argued on Wednesday that the White House is engaging in “some sort of weird semantic game” by emphasizing his usage of “attack plans,” rather than “war plans.”
The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT “war plans.”
This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin. pic.twitter.com/atGrDd2ymr
Meanwhile, Leavitt’s post was in response to the additional release of text messages between the Trump administration officials. They appeared to discuss possible strike packages, targets, and warplane launches against Islamic Houthi targets in Yemen.
The messages were sent on Signal, an end-to-end encryption application used for secure instant messaging.
“TEAM UPDATE: TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch. 1215et: 5-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). 1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s),” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly wrote in the messages released on Wednesday.
“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package). 1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets). 1536 F-18 2ns Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched,” Hegseth reportedly continued, adding “Godspeed to our Warriors.”
The Atlantic article also included an additional excerpt from the text messages — which appeared to indicate that U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was relaying real-time updates on target locations.
“VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job,” Waltz wrote, allegedly referring to Hegseth, General Michael E. Kurilla, the commander of Central Command, and the intelligence community.
“Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” Waltz later added.
When asked in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assured that the messaging thread contained “no classified material.” When something is “classified,” it means that it’s been officially categorized as secret or confidential and access to it is restricted to authorized individuals or groups.
Nevertheless, ever since, both Hegseth and Waltz have been fighting off calls from politicians, like Oregon Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, to resign from their positions — although Waltz has taken the most heat for inadvertently adding Goldberg to the chat group.
“I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz stated on Tuesday, calling the incident “embarrassing.”
“We got the best technical minds looking at how this happened,” Waltz continued, stating that Goldberg’s number was not saved in his phone. “I can tell you for 100% I don’t know this guy.”
Hegseth also responded on Wednesday, stating: “The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really s*** war plans. This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an ‘attack plan’ as he now calls it. Not even close.”
Additionally, on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote a letter to President Donald Trump, calling for Hegseth to be “fired immediately” — following the leak.
“The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans – including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets and the weapons to be used – during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter. His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law,” Jeffries’s letter read.
As the story continued to dominate media headlines, Trump issued another response — explaining that a Waltz staffer had possessed the journalist’s contact information, seemingly insinuating that they were responsible for the mishap.
“It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his [Goldberg’s] number on there,” Trump explained on Tuesday — also noting that the group chat had “no impact at all” on foreign relation plans facilitated by the administration.
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