American magazine The Atlantic released on Wednesday a full transcript of the text message conversation between senior U.S. security officials in the lead up, execution, and aftermath of U.S. airstrikes against Yemen on March 15.

Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg appeared to have been accidentally added to a Signal group chat whose most high-profile members included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National security adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

On Wednesday, during a press conference in Jamaica, Rubio said someone "made a big mistake" in adding Goldberg and that the White House was investigating the security breach. 

Elon Musk, U.S. President Donald Trump's billionaire advisor, offered his technical experts to investigate how the journalist was added, the White House's press secretary said.

Rubio claimed there were no war plans in the chat at that the information was not classified, echoing numerous statements from those implicated by the scandal, including Trump himself.

Faced with this claims and accusations of lying about the Signal chat contents, The Atlantic decided to publish the texts in full, which take place on March 15, two hours before the launch of the operation against Houthi positions and members in Yemen.

The Houthis have been targeting commercial ships belonging to or destined for Israel or the U.S. as part of a campaign in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel's devastating onslaught on the enclave, during which it has killed over 50,000 people. The Houthis attacks over the last year and a half have forced global trade companies to reroute to avoid the Red Sea, which is on a major shipping route.

The Signal chat — "a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly over the next 72 hours" —appeared to have been created by Waltz the day before the U.S. operation was launched. Vance's first message in the group says "I think we are making a mistake."

"Three percent of U.S. trade runs through The Suez," Vance wrote. "Forty percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary." He advocated for delaying the attacks a month, but ultimately the bombings go ahead. "Pete Hegseth, if you think we should do it, let's go," Vance eventually writes. "I just hate bailing out Europe again."

Half an hour before the first U.S. warplanes took off from CENTCOM, Waltz sent a message breaking down the timing and method of the following strikes.

“1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s),” a portion of the message reads.

Later, Waltz sends a message confirming the attack: "The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”

The U.S. air force killed at least 53 people in its bombings of Yemen that day, the Yemeni Health Ministry announced.

Vance responded to Waltz' confirmation message a minute later: “Excellent.” Thirty-five minutes after that, Ratcliffe, the CIA director, wrote, “A good start,” which Waltz followed with a text containing a fist emoji, an American-flag emoji, and a fire emoji.