Defense Officials Used Group Text To Plan Missile Strikes

The NPR Politics Podcast

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Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

Before the U.S. carried out missile strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, senior Trump administration officials discussed the plan of action. Also part of the discussion: Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, who had inadvertently been added to a group message on Signal about the missile strike. How did this happen, and what are the implications for national security?

Note: NPR CEO Katherine Maher is chair of the board of the Signal Foundation, whose subsidiary makes Signal.

This episode: political correspondent Sarah McCammon, White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram, and national security correspondent Greg Myre.

The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Wondery.
0:02.0	Kiki Palmer is that girl, and she's diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest to have real conversations on her podcast, Baby, this is Kiki Palmer.
0:13.4	Support for NPR, and the following message come from Yarl and Pamela Mohn, thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen.
0:23.7	Hi, this is Courtney Farrell in New York City, and I have just finished going through all of the voter registration forms that we've collected for my school's civics week in my New York City Public School.
0:35.3	This podcast was recorded at 12.36 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 25th,
0:41.6	2025. Things may have changed by the time you've heard this, but I will never stop being inspired by my
0:46.8	wonderful students. Gay for civics education. That's pretty cool.
0:56.5	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast.
0:57.9	I'm Sarah McCammon.
0:58.8	I cover politics.
0:59.9	I'm Deepa Shiverum.
1:00.7	I cover the White House.
1:02.2	And I'm Greg Myrie.
1:03.5	I cover national security.
1:08.0	And today on the show, we're looking at a major national security story this week,
1:13.3	how Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic, was added to a group text on the messaging app Signal. That chat detailed how and when the United States would launch
1:18.3	airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. And we should note, NPR's CEO, Catherine Marr,
1:24.5	chairs the board of directors for the Signal Foundation, whose subsidiary makes
1:28.7	signal. Now, that chain included multiple key Trump administration officials, the Secretary of
1:34.7	Defense, the Vice President, National Security Advisor, and other senior government leaders.
1:40.6	Now, Greg, it goes without saying that Goldberg, the journalist at the Atlantic, was not supposed to be on this text chain.
1:46.7	So how did this happen?
	...

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