By Douglas V. Gibbs
The Trump national security team, since they were not able to all be in the same room at the same time, used the Signal messaging app to discuss different national security issues in a general manner (Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called it an “update”), including an upcoming volley of strikes against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen without actually stating the details of the operation. During the March 13 group text meeting the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was erroneously added to the group chat. Goldberg is a known hard-left Trump-hater, and a pathological false-reporter who is known to distort facts for the purpose of supporting his ideology’s interests.
Goldberg is the journalist who lied about the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” that was used as one of the excuses to go into Iraq. He is the journalist who has consistently cast President Trump as an “existential threat to our democracy.” He is among those who states that the Trump presidency has brought upon America a “Constitutional Crisis.” He has called President Trump an “authoritarian,” and in 2016 while endorsing Hillary Clinton he asserted that Donald Trump is “the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency.” He is the journalist who lied about President Trump’s 2018 Normandy visit, stating the President dismissed the American soldiers who died storming the beaches on D-Day were “suckers” and “losers.” Goldberg also helped spread the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax. His wife, Pamela Ress Reeves, is an international development and policy strategist and a major donor to the Democratic Party, as well as the consulting senior advisor for gender strategy to the executive office of Melina Gates (wife of billionaire and depopulationist Bill Gates).
Two days after the Signal messaging app meeting, U.S. forces began a series of airstrikes and missile attacks against Yemen’s Houthis. The operation was successful. In fact, it was a huge success. Airstrikes against the terrorist group has been used on many occasions since the militant group began targeting commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea in November of 2023.
The use of the Signal messaging app began during the Biden-Harris administration. Top intelligence officials at the time encouraged staffers to utilize Signal because the communications app is encrypted and it would be more difficult for foreign intelligence services to intercept the conversations. When the Trump administration took over in 2025 they were encouraged to also rely on services like Signal because of its ability to provide “end-to-end encryption” when meeting together in a secure room, or discussing matters on a secure line is not possible.
On March 24, in an article in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he had been in on the Signal chat on March 13 and he alleged that Trump’s team described the timing, targets, and specific weapons to be used in the renewed strikes on Yemen. He also alleged that a CIA employee’s name was revealed in the exchange.
Democrats slammed Trump’s administration for “texting war plans,” and allegedly including critically sensitive details in a chat that was not secure. Goldberg insists that the details shared in the chat were of such a sensitive nature that he chose not to publish them for fear of compromising American military personnel.
Congress began to investigate, questioning the personnel involved. All of the personnel insisted that no confidential information was discussed on the chat.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on X stated: “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. As I type this, my team and I are travelling the INDOPACOM region, meeting w/ Commanders (the guys who make REAL “war plans”) and talking to troops. We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes.”
During the grilling by Congressmen the Democrats claimed that merely identifying the weapons involved was a betrayal of American security and intelligence.
When I was in the United States Navy my first ship was the USS Chandler (DDG-996), a Kidd-class guided missile destroyer and even though I was a Personnelman the office was jam-packed with sailors the same rate as myself so I was sent to the Deck Department and after doing the obligatory messdeck duties of all new sailors, I got to work with the Deck Apes doing things like underway watches and so forth. During general quarters I worked with the Damage Control Officer in Damage Control Central. When I went home on leave and my folks asked about what I was doing, I told them my duties onboard ship, and I talked about the Chandler. It was, after all, at the time one of the top ships in terms of technology. And, I told them about the weapons systems.
- Missile Launchers: Two Mark 26 launchers for RIM-66 Standard missiles and two Mark 141 quad launchers for RGM-84 Harpoon missiles.
- Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS): Two Mark 15 Phalanx 20 mm CIWS for defense against incoming threats.
- Naval Guns: Two Mark 45 5-inch/54 caliber guns.
- Torpedoes: Two Mark 32 triple tube mounts for Mark 46 torpedoes.
- Aircraft: The ship was capable of carrying one SH-3 Sea King or two SH-2 Seasprite helicopters.
The ship was commissioned in 1982 and I joined it in January of 1985, which means it was still a very new vessel when I came aboard. It served until 1999, after which it was sold to Taiwan and to this day it is still in service as ROCS Ma Kong (DDG-1805) as a member of Taiwan’s naval forces since 2006.
My second ship, the USS Peoria (LST-1183) was not equipped with such an array of weapons. It had:
- Naval Guns: Two twin 3″/50 caliber dual-purpose gun mounts.
- Two 25mm chain guns, six .50 caliber machine guns, and one 20mm Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS).
- Aviation Facilities: A helicopter deck capable of accommodating most Navy helicopter types.
While I did not participate in underway watches the way I did on the Chandler, I was on the flight deck for flight ops and I got to participate in amphib ops with U.S. Marines. The ship was over 35 years old when I joined its crew, and it was decommissioned in 1994 less than a decade after I was discharged, and it was then used for target practice in 2004 after which it was sunk as a target.
During those conversations I was not betraying my Top Secret classification. Why? The information was not only public information, but the few things that were not were not technically classified. It was okay if I discussed what weapons systems we had, what my responsibilities during various operations were, or when we were going on deployment. And if some lefty overheard me because he somehow lied his way into the conversation, I didn’t need to be fired for my discussions.
Secretary Hegseth nailed it. Any discussions about the weapons available to the United States to use, or that an operation was getting ready to happen was not a betrayal of American security or intelligence. No names, no targets, no locations and no details were stated. This is simply the leftwing Democrats searching for a scandal because they hate President Trump and any of his supporters or personnel and now the judicial case is headed to court…and the judge getting the case? Judge Boasberg, the same activist judge trying to block President Trump’s deportation orders and the same one behind the whole FISA garbage regarding the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax.
There was no classified information transmitted, no war plans provided, and as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, it was “sensationalist spin.”
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
