WASHINGTON – The exposure of private texts between top US officials offered unique insight into their planning for strikes against Houthi militants earlier in March. The messages also laid bare the full extent of their disdain for European allies.

A back and forth between US Vice-President J.D. Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, exposed as part of an Atlantic magazine story on the texts on March 24, highlighted how they believe their European allies were “free-loading” off US efforts to go after Houthi militants in Yemen.

“I just hate bailing Europe out again,” a user identified as Mr Vance said in the chat, expressing reservations about whether to go ahead with the strikes. “And if there are things we can do upfront to minimise risk to Saudi oil facilities, we should do it.”

“VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading,” Mr Hegseth responded. “It’s PATHETIC.”

That back and forth was included in a series of texts received by The Atlantic’s top editor, Mr Jeffrey Goldberg, after he was inadvertently added to a text group on the Signal app with top Trump administration officials who were planning attacks on the Houthis, a Yemeni militia that has menaced shipping in the Red Sea for more than a year. 

The attacks went ahead soon after.

European allies’ unease was already running deep towards the US after President Donald Trump’s repeated broadsides accusing them of not spending enough on defence or spending more on Ukraine’s defence. Mr Trump is also vowing massive tariffs that would rock the economies of several European Union members.

Mr Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in February – in which he accused Germany of censoring supporters of the far right – fanned the flames. And Mr Hegseth delivered a speech to Nato that further ruffled feathers when he said the US can’t be “primarily focused on the security of Europe”.

The private text exchanges went further, however, with White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz saying the US would tally up the costs associated with the strike on the Houthis and “levy them on the Europeans” per Mr Trump’s request. 

“In the amazing story of the Signal group coordinating Yemen air strikes, Vice-President JD Vance once again comes out as driven by deep anti-European resentment,” former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt wrote on X.

A National Security Co...