UB expert: Signal app leak puts trust in government at risk

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The group chat in which key figures in the Trump administration shared details about an attack against Houthi targets on the Signal messaging app shows a key mistake by the U.S.’s national security leadership, according to a University at Buffalo expert on military policy.

Carla Martínez Machain, PhD, a professor of political science at UB, says that while the administration’s leadership is downplaying the event, the chat shows a violation of protocols that not only put U.S. security at risk, but can erode trust in government.

The U.S. and the U.K. have been targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen through airstrikes since 2024. Aerial bombing appeals to powerful democracies such as the U.S. because it is perceived as being lower-cost (both in terms of political as well as military costs) than ground interventions, Martínez Machain says. And while it can signal low resolve from the states using it, she says, it can be effective in achieving limited goals more quickly than other military options.

The targets that were hit in the operation that was described in the Signal chat were specific ones that were expected to have disproportionately large effects on the Houthis. For example, it has been reported that the strikes targeted key Houthi leadership, including their “head missileer.”

“These types of targeted attacks can lead to states achieving their aims quickly and efficiently, but they leave less room for error,” says Martínez  Machain. “This means that if the content of the chat had been intercepted by nefarious actors hostile to the United States, the entire operation could have been compromised, threatening the safety of U.S. pilots as well as making it less likely that the intended targets were hit.”

Martínez Machain says, “The ability to maintain secrecy in carrying out military operations is a factor that gives democracies, such as the United States, a significant advantage in conflict. Yet, in order for publics in democracies to trust their governments to keep information secret in the present, they must have assurances that there will be retrospective oversight. In other words, the public must believe that in the future they will be able to gain access to information on what their government has done in the past (through laws such as Freedom of Information Act).”

Martínez Machain adds that this particular chat was set to delete, and was carried out through a nongovernment channel.

“This means that beyond the immediate security risks posed by the leaking of confidential attacks plans, this leak shows that government officials were not following required protocol in communicating about the attack. Actions like this can destroy public trust in government officials, which can in turn harm military effectiveness by making publics less willing to grant governments the ability to carry out policy in secret.”