Did Trump administration’s war plans leak break the law? What Americans said in a poll

About half of Americans believe that, by accidentally leaking war plans to a journalist in an unclassified app, senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration broke the law, according to a new YouGov poll.

The poll, released on March 25, also revealed that the vast majority of Americans — including most Republicans and Democrats — consider the leak to be a very or somewhat serious problem.

It comes the day after Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, published a story saying he was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat with high-ranking Trump officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.

In the chat, the officials discussed detailed plans for an upcoming U.S. airstrike against Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to the outlet.

President Donald Trump downplayed the incident, saying it was “the only glitch in two months” of his administration, and other officials said the chat did not include classified intelligence, according to the Associated Press.

Hegseth also told reporters “nobody was texting war plans” and attempted to discredit Goldberg, according to Axios.

In response, The Atlantic, on March 26, published new messages that Goldberg had access to in the chat.

Did Trump officials break the law?

In the poll — which sampled 5,976 U.S. adults — 48% of respondents said Trump officials broke the law by sharing war plans in an unclassified app in a chat that included a journalist.

Less than half that share, 21%, said they did not break the law, and 31% said they weren’t sure.

The vast majority of Democrats, 76%, said the officials acted unlawfully, while 46% of independents and just 21% of Republicans said the same.

Is the leak a serious problem?

Larger shares of Americans believe that, legal or not, the leak is grounds for concern.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said the incident represented a very (53%) or somewhat serious problem (21%), according to the poll, which has a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.

Eighty-nine percent of Democrats said it is very (75%) or somewhat serious (14%), and 60% of Republicans said it is very (28%) or somewhat serious (32%). Independents fell somewhere in the middle, with 72% saying the leak is very (53%) or somewhat (19%) serious.

Comparison to Clinton’s emails

The poll also compared respondents’ reactions to those from previous polls on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account to conduct official government business — a revelation that featured heavily in the 2016 presidential campaign.

It found that more Americans consider the Trump officials’ leak to be serious than said the same about Clinton’s use of a personal email account.

In a 2022 poll, 62% of respondents said they believed Clinton’s email scandal was a somewhat or very serious problem, and 56% said the same in 2015. By comparison, 74% now believe the Trump officials’ war plans leak is very or somewhat serious.

In both the 2022 and 2015 polls, Republicans were far more likely than Democrats to say Clinton’s use of a personal email account constituted a serious problem.

This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Did Trump administration’s war plans leak break the law? What Americans said in a poll."