Signal Group Chat Controversy Involving Journalist and Trump Era Plans
A journalist from The Atlantic was unexpectedly added to a Signal group chat with senior government officials, sparking controversy due to discussions about military actions targeting Houthi forces in Yemen. This incident has now been associated with another contentious topic connected to former US President Donald Trump: Project 2025.
Project 2025 was previously used by Democrats as a critique against Trump’s third presidential campaign, labeling it a potential “playbook” for authoritarian aspirations should he return to the White House. This initiative is tied to a document from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, called Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. Although Trump has distanced himself, stating he has “no idea who is behind it,” former associates of his have been linked to its proposals.
Some of the document’s recommendations have been implemented by the Republican administration, such as the initiative to dismantle the Department of Education and the effort to omit terms related to sexual orientation and gender identity from federal documentation.
The resurfacing of comments from Heritage Foundation affiliates concerning government communications has reignited discussions amid the Signal scandal. A notable post on Twitter/X suggests “Project 2025 calls for using public channels of communication … to subvert FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests.” Additionally, training videos associated with the initiative allegedly advise using Signal for communications to evade subpoenas.
Analysis of Project 2025 reveals that the Mandate for Leadership does not explicitly mention Signal. However, a training video on “oversight and investigations” from the project, obtained by ProPublica and shared on YouTube, draws attention. In this video, Tom Jones of the American Accountability Foundation emphasizes informal, in-person problem resolution over email to avoid creating records that might be subject to scrutiny.
During the video, Mike Howell from The Heritage Foundation queries attorney Michael Ding from America First Legal about whether Signal chats are considered records, to which Ding confirms “yes,” highlighting the complexity of using encrypted chat platforms for official business.
Screenshots shared by The Atlantic show that messages in the Signal chat had a disappearing feature enabled. In response, a federal judge has mandated the Trump administration to retain records of the conversation, following a request from the watchdog group American Oversight. This group condemned the use of disappearing messages as a strategic attempt to bypass federal record retention regulations.
Trump officials have maintained that no classified information was exchanged in the controversial Signal chat.
