Six In Ten Republicans Say Signalgate Is a Serious Problem Even As Trump Officials Downplay It

A majority of Republicans believe that Signalgate, the discussing of attack plans against Yemen's Houthi rebels in a messaging app as well as the inadvertent inclusion of a journalist in the conversation, is a serious problem even as top Trump officials continue to downplay it.

Concretely, a poll by YouGov showed that 60% of Republicans said that was the case in their view. The figure is lower than the 72% of Independents and 89% of Democrats, but conveys the seriousness of the matter even among President Donald Trump's most staunch supporters.

Overall, 74% of respondents said that the use of the group chat to discuss the strikes was a very (53%) or somewhat (21%) serious problem, showed the poll, conducted among 5,976 U.S. adults. Over a quarter of Republicans (28%) said it was a "very serious" problem. Only 13% of respondents said the matter was not very serious or not serious at all.

The White House has been relying on one word to reject the reporting by The Atlantic about top officials discussing highly-sensitive military operations on Signal: that it's latest article revealing the content of the conversation, which included real-time updates, uses the word "attack" in the headline rather than "war."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X on Wednesday that "The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT 'war plans.'" "This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin," Leavitt added.

However, some MAGA allies have been rejecting the rhetoric, calling on the government to own it and move on. One of them is conservative commentator Tomi Lahren: ""It was bad. And I'm honestly getting sick of the whatabout isms from my own side. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Admit the F up and move on," she said in a post on X.

Senator Ted Cruz has acknowledged that the accidental inclusion of a journalist in the group chat discussing military strikes on the Houthis was a serious mistake. Speaking to ABC News, Cruz stated that the episode "was obviously a mess, to add a reporter to this Signal chain. And I feel confident it's not something that will happen again." However, he dismissed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) call for an inquiry, calling it a "political attack."

Moreover, NBC News reported on Thursday that a growing number of Trump allies are calling on Trump to fire National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who inadvertently included The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffery Goldberg to the chat.