HU Students React To Leaked Chat About Yemen Strikes

The Trump administration is facing pushback after leaked group chat messages about U.S. military strikes in Yemen were published by The Atlantic last Wednesday. 

Jeffery Goldberg, who serves as the editor-in-chief at The Atlantic published a transcript of the messages which showed the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth detailing the attack plans in Yemen within Signal, a texting app, per NBC News. 

“I’m in disbelief but I’m not surprised,” said Phaedra Hyche, a third-year political science major. 

In an article titled “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal”, Goldberg quoted texts in which Hegseth specified types of U.S military aircraft and the timing of recent airstrikes against Houthi militias in Yemen. The texts did not include information about specific targets. 

“I feel like as world leaders, making a group chat should not have been on the list of options, and speaking the way they were just proves how immature and unqualified they are for their respective decisions,” said Amani Anderson, a second-year political science major. 

The Trump administration tried to downplay the magazine’s reports about the Signal chat, claiming that “no classified information was discussed.”

It wasn’t until Goldberg and Shane Harris, a national security and intelligence reporter at The Atlantic, published the entirety of the messages that contained the classified information, that the Trump administration would be less definitive. 

In reply to news about the leaked chat Trump said, “That’s what I’ve heard. I don’t know. I’m not sure. You have to ask the various people involved. I really don’t know,” per NBC News.   Goldberg, who was accidentally added to the group chat, originally was skeptical of the messages being real. Once he realized that the times of the US striking Yemen matched up with the times discussed in the texts, he realized that the group chat was real and left. 

“I think Goldberg being added and then being able to leave without being noticed really speaks volumes to the competency of our nation's leaders right now,” said Alexis Young, a fourth-year political science major. 

The leaked messages have since sparked a conversation about the serious breach of security, and how Goldberg was able to be added and seemingly disappear from a group chat about Yemen.

“The leaked chat definitely raises concerns of more possible security breaches throughout the remainder of Trump’s presidency,” said Nylah McCuller, a second-year journalism major. “If important classified information can be accidentally accessed by an everyday citizen journalist or not, what’s stopping that information from ending up in the hands of other nations.”