1. United States
2. Fla.
3. Letter

Fire Hegseth - he is a national security risk. For nearly nine months, Trump-administration officials have defended top national-security leaders who shared information in a Signal chat about U.S. strikes in Yemen, first reported (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/) by The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently included in the group. Officials played down the severity of the breach and insisted that the information wasn’t classified. Now the Pentagon’s top watchdog has concluded that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared in the chat (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/) could have put the mission, U.S. personnel, and national security at risk had it fallen into the wrong hands. The information Hegseth shared included the precise times (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/) that fighter pilots would attack their targets, the sort of information ordinarily shared only on secure platforms. If Houthi militants had learned those details in advance, they might have been able to shoot down American planes or better defend their positions.