Signalgate: Should Europe be more concerned about VP Vance than President Trump himself? | DW News

Donald Trump has downplayed the embarrassing leak from top security officials that shared classified war plans with a journalist. In an interview with NBC News, the US president dismissed the leak – on the messaging app Signal – as a 'glitch' and not serious. On Monday, the Atlantic Magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said he'd been added to a group-chat discussing US airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen – just hours before they were carried out.

The user identified as US Vice President JD Vance posted a message, referring to US plans to hit Houthi forces, who had been disrupting international shipping in the Red Sea: ''If you think we should do it, let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

Minutes later, according to Goldberg, the user identified as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth responded: “Vice president, I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s pathetic. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this. Nobody else even close.''

Here in Germany, politicians have expressed deep concern about the US leak and what it means for Europe's relations with the Trump administration.

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