Michael Waltz, national security adviser to Donald Trump, invited journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a confidential group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal. The chat was given the title “Houthi PC small group.”
Waltz then messaged the group the following:
Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening. Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.
Signal is not an authorized platform for confidential government communications.
The “PC” in “Houthi PC small group” stands for “principals committee,” a group of senior national security officials, usually including the director of the CIA and the heads of the DOD, Treasury, and State Department.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded to Waltz’ request for a point of contact by naming State Dept. attorney Mike Needham.
Vice President J.D. Vance named Andrew “Andy” Baker.
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, named Joe Kent.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent named Dan Katz.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named Dan Caldwell.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe named an active intelligence officer, which Goldberg (the journalist) chose not to name when he published this story a week later.
Someone named Brian at the National Security Council appeared to designate himself as point of contact, responding “Brian McCormack for NSC.” This person could also have been Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council.
Others in the chat included Ukraine / Middle East negotiator Steve Witkoff, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and the infamous Stephen Miller.
Trump File is a timeline of troubling and often criminal events in Trump’s life and administrations. Other critical moments from this group chat are included in separate posts on the corresponding dates.
