Trump Administration Officials Used Signal to Dodge Scrutiny on Yemen Attack Plans

A former Trump administration official and ex-CIA agent has offered his perspective on why current Cabinet members are using the Signal app, a publicly available platform, to discuss sensitive matters like the Yemen attack plans.

Kevin Carroll, who held positions in the Trump administration and served as a CIA officer, suggests that officials like National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are using Signal to avoid having their communications preserved under the Presidential Records Act. This strategy, according to Carroll, aims to prevent their discussions from being discovered in legal proceedings, subpoenas, or Freedom of Information Act requests.

The situation came to light when Waltz accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in a Signal group chat where White House plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen were being discussed. Other administration officials, including Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, were also participants. Hegseth reportedly shared detailed information about the planned U.S. strikes, including attack timelines, using the unsecure app.

While the White House Press Secretary has stated that Signal is an approved app for government use, and Trump has downplayed the incident, Carroll believes the use of Signal in this context poses significant risks. He argues that discussing sensitive operations on an insecure platform could endanger the lives of U.S. military personnel involved in the operation.

The Pentagon’s acting inspector general has initiated a review of Hegseth’s use of Signal, as well as the use of the app by other defense officials. The review will examine the use of a platform that is not designed to handle classified information and is not part of the Department of Defense’s secure communications network.