"100 Percent OPSEC" — How Trump’s Team Turned War Planning into a Group Chat Disaster

In what may go down as one of the most absurd security breaches in modern U.S. history, the Trump administration’s top national security officials accidentally included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in a Signal group chat outlining airstrike plans against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Yes, you read that correctly. Someone in the administration — apparently operating with all the caution of a toddler holding a chainsaw — accidentally looped in a journalist during the planning of a Middle Eastern military operation. Because when you think national security, you naturally think Signal group chat with a bunch of political appointees and one baffled reporter.

THE SIGNAL CHAT THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN

The group chat — charmingly titled “Houthi PC Small Group,” as if they were planning a company picnic — included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Toss in a few more names like Trump adviser Stephen Miller, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and envoy Steve Witkoff, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster — a clown car of chaotic diplomacy that somehow managed to back itself into a ditch.

Jeffrey Goldberg found himself roped in after National Security Adviser Mike Waltz apparently added him to the chat by mistake. Reports indicate Waltz inadvertently included Goldberg’s number in the group — a blunder so careless it’s hard to believe it didn’t involve someone fumbling their phone while trying to order Postmates.

And what did Goldberg see once inside? Details about timing, targets, and weapons deployment — essentially the cheat codes to an active military strike.

It’s worth repeating: this was not some mundane group chat about office lunches or debate prep. This was a conversation about U.S. military strikes in Yemen, and Pete Hegseth had the audacity to reassure the group that they were “100 percent OPSEC” — a bold claim for someone spilling top-secret war plans in front of a journalist.

OPSEC BY EMOJI

The sheer incompetence of the group chat only gets funnier — and more infuriating — the deeper you go. At one point, Vice President Vance, sounding like a guy too lazy to help move a couch, griped:

"I just hate bailing Europe out again."

To which Hegseth responded:

"I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It’s PATHETIC."

But Hegseth proudly assured the group that they were maintaining "100 percent OPSEC."

For those unfamiliar, OPSEC — short for Operational Security — is the military’s sacred rulebook for keeping sensitive information out of enemy hands. It’s all about limiting access, securing communications, and ensuring critical details like troop movements or attack plans aren’t casually broadcast to anyone who happens to be in the room. Or, in this case, to a journalist who was sitting quietly in their group chat like someone accidentally invited to a surprise party.

By claiming they were “100 percent OPSEC” while Goldberg silently watched from the digital sidelines, Hegseth wasn’t just wrong — he was practically begging to be included in the next edition of The Art of War for Dummies.

But it didn’t end there. After the airstrikes commenced, Michael Waltz — or the person claiming to be Waltz — congratulated the group with a fist emoji, an American flag emoji, and a fire emoji. Because nothing says carefully calculated military operation quite like someone texting “🔥🔥🔥.”

To top it off, Marco Rubio jumped in with a hearty “Good job, Pete!” while Susie Wiles chimed in with a bubbly “Kudos to all!” — as if they had just wrapped up a particularly satisfying bake sale.

SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL?

This wasn’t a slip-up; it was a full-speed nosedive into stupidity. Security experts have described the breach as unprecedented — a mix of reckless tech habits, amateur-hour oversight, and blind confidence that somehow managed to let a major journalist eavesdrop on live war plans. The National Security Council admitted the chat was real, yet shrugged off concerns by claiming the breach didn’t endanger troops or security. Because when your intelligence failures play out like a rejected Brooklyn Nine-Nine script, what else can you say?

Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Pat Ryan, clearly done with the clown show, described the fiasco as “FUBAR — fucked up beyond all recognition,” vowing to demand immediate hearings.

In the aftermath, Goldberg admitted he initially assumed the messages were part of a disinformation campaign. Only when the airstrikes played out exactly as described did he realize he’d just witnessed the Trump administration accidentally texting him live war plans. Somewhere in the chaos, Hegseth was likely still high-fiving himself for achieving “100 percent OPSEC.”

A GOVERNMENT HELD TOGETHER WITH DUCT TAPE

The most unsettling part of this entire debacle isn’t the stupidity itself — it’s the realization that this level of recklessness isn’t new. Trump’s administration has a long-running tradition of handling national security like a middle school group project — slapdash, chaotic, and riddled with critical errors. The difference this time? Someone accidentally invited the class reporter to the meeting.

In the end, this whole ordeal feels less like politics and more like a tragic comedy — one where the characters are too delusional to realize they’ve left the stage door open. If this is Trump’s idea of a secure military strategy, we should all be grateful the chat didn’t end with “LOL, let’s bomb Tehran next.”

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