section_path: National Security Advisor/Tenure at the NSA/Signal app group chat leak
section_name: Signal app group chat leak
paragraph_text: Signal app group chat leak
  
  On 26 March 2025 it was revealed by The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg that Waltz had inadvertently added him to a Signal group chat discussing the upcoming US strikes in Yemen targeting Houthi militia before they were publicly known. Signal is a commercial non-government messaging application. In the Signal chat, Waltz appears to initially add a setting that causes the chat messages to be deleted after one week, but later Waltz changes the setting to let the message deletions occur after four weeks. After the strikes occurred, Waltz provided a real-time update to the Signal chat, announcing that the strikes' "first target", which was the Houthi's "top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed".
  
  After The Atlantic reported about the Signal chat, the incident sparked national security concerns as Pentagon regulations specifically prohibit the use of Signal and similar messaging apps for sharing classified information. Due to the automatic message deletion setting, there were also concerns on whether the conversations were kept on official record as mandated by the Presidential Records Act. Waltz responded to the reporting by saying that Goldberg "really is the bottom scum of journalists … I don't text him. He wasn't on my phone", but Goldberg "somehow gets on somebody's contact and then get sucked into this group"; Waltz also said of Goldberg: "I didn't see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else", raising the possibility that Goldberg "did it deliberately". Waltz told the media that "I take full responsibility. I built the group", then said: "We made a mistake. We're moving forward".
  
  After the Signal leak, Der Spiegel searched the Internet using a commercial information provider, a commercial people search engine, and leaked databases, which revealed Waltz's personal mobile number, personal email address and its passwords, and Waltz's personal profiles for Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal.
  
  On 30 March 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that according to American officials, Waltz had started and hosted multiple other Signal group chats containing Cabinet members to discuss sensitive issues related to national security, including on military operations and on ceasing hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. In April, The Washington Post reported that officials had stated that Waltz received government communications on his personal Gmail account, including his schedule and work documents, and that Waltz would then transfer data from his schedule to Signal. Both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post quoted their sources as indicating that Trump did not want to fire Waltz because it would make a left-leaning media outlet (The Atlantic) look good, and that Waltz would have been fired if it was a right-leaning media outlet that exposed him.
  
  Politico followed with a 2 April 2025 report that reported that Waltz's national security team had created at least 20 Signal group chats discussing official (and sometimes sensitive) national security issues, on topics such as such as Ukraine, China, Gaza, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Politico wrote that its sources were four people who had been added to such Signal chats, one of whom said: "Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal", while another said that Waltz and his national security team had continued to use Signal ever since the transition period before Trump's second presidency began.
  
  On 26 March 2025 it was revealed by The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg that Waltz had inadvertently added him to a Signal group chat discussing the upcoming US strikes in Yemen targeting Houthi militia before they were publicly known. Signal is a commercial non-government messaging application. In the Signal chat, Waltz appears to initially add a setting that causes the chat messages to be deleted after one week, but later Waltz changes the setting to let the message deletions occur after four weeks. After the strikes occurred, Waltz provided a real-time update to the Signal chat, announcing that the strikes' "first target", which was the Houthi's "top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed".
  
  After The Atlantic reported about the Signal chat, the incident sparked national security concerns as Pentagon regulations specifically prohibit the use of Signal and similar messaging apps for sharing classified information. Due to the automatic message deletion setting, there were also concerns on whether the conversations were kept on official record as mandated by the Presidential Records Act. Waltz responded to the reporting by saying that Goldberg "really is the bottom scum of journalists … I don't text him. He wasn't on my phone", but Goldberg "somehow gets on somebody's contact and then get sucked into this group"; Waltz also said of Goldberg: "I didn't see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else", raising the possibility that Goldberg "did it deliberately". Waltz told the media that "I take full responsibility. I built the group", then said: "We made a mistake. We're moving forward".
  
  After the Signal leak, Der Spiegel searched the Internet using a commercial information provider, a commercial people search engine, and leaked databases, which revealed Waltz's personal mobile number, personal email address and its passwords, and Waltz's personal profiles for Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal.
  
  On 30 March 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that according to American officials, Waltz had started and hosted multiple other Signal group chats containing Cabinet members to discuss sensitive issues related to national security, including on military operations and on ceasing hostilities between Ukraine and Russia. In April, The Washington Post reported that officials had stated that Waltz received government communications on his personal Gmail account, including his schedule and work documents, and that Waltz would then transfer data from his schedule to Signal. Both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post quoted their sources as indicating that Trump did not want to fire Waltz because it would make a left-leaning media outlet (The Atlantic) look good, and that Waltz would have been fired if it was a right-leaning media outlet that exposed him.
  
  Politico followed with a 2 April 2025 report that reported that Waltz's national security team had created at least 20 Signal group chats discussing official (and sometimes sensitive) national security issues, on topics such as such as Ukraine, China, Gaza, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Politico wrote that its sources were four people who had been added to such Signal chats, one of whom said: "Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal", while another said that Waltz and his national security team had continued to use Signal ever since the transition period before Trump's second presidency began.